What happened to Mikayla Noble? Accident revisited as paralysed cheerleader marks 4 years of tragic incident

Makayla Noble, a former world champion cheerleader from Prosper, Texas, has completed the four-year mark of the accident that forever changed her life.

The ultimate high school cheerleader suffered a catastrophic injury to her spinal cord during a tumbling accident in a friend's backyard on September 20, 2021.

This injury left her paralyzed from the chest down, presenting an athlete of 17 years old, a fatal prognosis.

Tumbling, a gymnastics vocation involving flips, jumps, and twists executed without equipment, had always been one of Noble’s gifts and passions.

But a poorly executed landing resulted in devastating injuries.

Makayla Noble is the most brave and courageous soul I know…go check out this extraordinary, raw, & vulnerable conversation. She unpacks the moment her mother first arrived on the scene after her accident. WOW.https://t.co/CS2eY17V91 pic.twitter.com/dE9Bi39FXI

— Life After Podcast with David Vobora (@LifeAfterWithDV) March 7, 2025

Noble, who stayed conscious for the duration of the accident, remembered realizing right away that something was “very, very wrong.”

She reported feeling her body “go away,” below the place of impact, a harrowing sign of paralysis.

"I thought I broke my neck and my back. Again, I didn’t know what the feeling of being paralyzed felt like, but I thought that that had happened because it felt like half my body just disappeared and went away," she told Peer Magazine.

Emergency medical services brought Noble to a hospital in Plano, Texas, where she had surgery on her spine and spent weeks in the intensive care unit.

Eventually, she was transferred to a rehabilitation facility that specialized in spinal and head injury rehabilitation.

The first updates from her family described the challenges she faced, and stated that she had limited mobility, lost the use of her hands, and was trying to mentally adjust to such sudden and severe limitations.

"When a situation like this comes about, I think there’s two ways you could go. You could blame God and be angry at Him and just say, “Why me? What did I do to deserve this?” But I never went down that path," Makayla Noble added.

Makayla Noble's road to recovery

The incident produced an abundance of support from the community. A Facebook group dubbed Makayla’s Fight reached a member count in the tens of thousands, and a GoFundMe campaign raised great sums of money for her medical expenses.

Friends, family, and strangers came out to lift her up financially and emotionally as she settled into her new norm.

Since then, Noble has served as an emblem of resilience. She went back to cheerleading during her senior year of high school, cheering on the sidelines in her wheelchair alongside her teammates.

She has also developed new interests, including painting, which she has called healing, and has spoken about wanting to be a published author.

Her Christian beliefs have remained at the core of her recovery, something she has often mentioned while being interviewed, and on social media.

On September 20, 2025, addressing the four-year anniversary of her accident, Noble publicly reflected on Instagram.

In a heartfelt post, she recognized the sadness in losing independence at a young age, then emphasized she intended to be fully alive in her new circumstances.

"Trust me I've been deep in my sorrow this week, but I think it takes true strength to rise from the ashes and say “this is my life. I am going to control what I can and make this the most beautiful life I can”. With the help of my amazing family, friends, community, and yall I can confidently say I have done that," she wrote in an Instagram post.

As Noble moves into her fourth year after the accident, she still encourages many by sharing her developments, difficulties and victories.

Her story is seen as a testament to the unpredictability of life, and the power of faith and community.