Then this year, during a visit to a British spiritual healer, Delia Knox suddenly stood up and walked.
And the 46-year-old has been walking ever since.
Mrs Knox, whose ‘miracle moment’ was filmed and has become a favourite YouTube clip, said: ‘This has turned my world upside down. I can stand in my kitchen and walk around my house. I’m like a little kid out of a baby carriage seeing things that were once so huge now seem so small.
‘I am in awe at seeing the power of God not just in my life but all over the world as a result of this miracle.’
The accident which confined her to a wheelchair for 23 years happened when she was on her way home after a church service in Toronto, Canada, with her sister and brother-in-law.
She was a passenger in the car which was hit by a drink driver and bore the brunt of the impact. Her sister and brother-in-law and their two children escaped with minor injuries.
Mrs Knox lost all feeling in her legs and had almost given up hope of walking again.
When she agreed to attend a meeting with preacher Nathan Morris earlier this year, she had no idea healings were happening.
She said: ‘I wanted to get in the presence of God and to see my good friends Pastor John and Brenda Kilpatrick. I knew it was an evangelistic meeting but I didn’t know healings were taking place. To be honest I’ve stayed away from healing meetings.
‘I’ve been pulled, plopped and dropped and rarely responded to altar calls.
‘But Nathan Morris called my husband forward and I had no idea what was going on. I didn’t want to make a scene when Nathan was praying for me.
‘Then all of a sudden I felt a voice which I knew was the Holy Spirit saying to me, “Get up”, and I felt feeling in my legs and then faith came on me to walk.
‘I wasn’t going to let anyone take this away from me and I knew this was my night to walk out of the chair.
‘I walked and walked and walked and felt I had entered another realm. I ended up on the floor and someone was touching my legs and I could feel my knees for the first time. They were bending and clicking into place.’
The footage, which has been viewed by 200,000 on YouTube, shows her being prayed for and lifted out of the wheelchair by the healer during a visit to the Bay of the Holy Spirit Revival in Mobile, Alabama.
People weep and clap as she stands up and independently moves her legs to make her way through the crowd, her steps steadied by two suited men.
A later video shows her walking unaided. The gospel artist, who lives in the U.S., now rarely uses her wheelchair. Her husband, Bishop Levy Knox, said: ‘What has happened to my wife has changed our lives.’