Doctors told him he'd never walk again. When he got up from his wheelchair at his wedding, everyone gasped

On April 21, 2018, Chris Norton and Emily Summers got married at Abacoa Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, with nearly 200 guests in attendance. After exchanging vows, Summers wrapped her arms around Norton and lifted him out of his wheelchair. Together, they walked seven yards down the aisle. "I didn’t know how the steps would go, so I was just in the zone. I just wanted to take those nice steps, take my time, and enjoy the moment, too." Norton told People, who featured his story in a documentary called Seven Yards. Norton had set that goal nearly a year earlier. When they began training, he could not take a single step, reported People.

Norton was paralyzed in 2010 while playing football for Luther College. On October 16, during a game in his freshman year, he collided with another player during a kickoff. He tried to push himself off the ground but couldn’t move. He was airlifted to a hospital where doctors diagnosed a fracture of the C3 and C4 vertebrae. After surgery, his surgeon told him he had a three percent chance of regaining any movement below the neck. Norton said, "That was my first time I just lost it. God, I don’t care if I ever play this sport again; just give me the ability to walk."

Five weeks later, he felt something in his left big toe. The doctor told him it was a phantom feeling, saying, "Your brain tricked you into thinking it’s real." Norton said, "I was devastated. I’mma prove this doctor wrong." On Thanksgiving morning, he moved that exact toe. He spent three months as an inpatient and four months as an outpatient in Rochester, Minnesota. He returned to college and moved in with friends from the football team. Norton said that along with his physical challenges, he struggled with feelings of being unlovable. He said, "I don't know who that person would be. Will I meet that girl?"

His friends encouraged him to try online dating. That’s how he met Summers. She read his story and was curious. She told People, "He seems so positive. Like how can he be this positive when you’re dealing with so much adversity and so many different challenges every day?" They met in person and talked for hours. Norton said, "She gave me so much confidence in myself. She was such a passionate, hard-working individual, and she just lifted me up." Norton told her he wanted to walk across the stage at graduation. He said, "Emily really kind of took it upon herself." She came to every workout and started training with him on her own. In 2015, the day before graduation, he proposed. The next morning, they walked across the stage together. He said, "The accident brought me to her."

As they planned their wedding, the new goal became walking down the aisle together. Summers said, "When we first tried, he couldn’t even take one step. Then, slowly but surely, every night, it would be one step and then two steps and then three steps. He kept working out and training to make sure it happened." Norton said, "It’s easy to think you’re in a wheelchair, life’s over. But it’s not the case. There are so many people out there who need more opportunities to get out of the hole."