Paralyzed bride-to-be: ‘They told me I'd never walk again -- I'm proving them wrong'

A young bride-to-be, paralyzed after making a leap off an overpass on Interstate 79, is undergoing intense rehab to be able to walk down the aisle for her fall wedding.

February 20, 2012 is a date Alissa Boyle will never forget.

It was two days after she became engaged to her fiancé Nathan, and the day she became paralyzed.

"We were driving down the highway. There was a guy in the left lane that flipped his Jeep so we got out to help him," she said.

But as a semitrailer barreled toward them, Boyle and her friend had no choice but to jump from an overpass and fell 50 feet below.

"I remember hitting the ground," she recalled. "I knew right away that I couldn't feel my legs."

Boyle was a nursing student at Waynesburg University at the time, and she said she immediately knew it was a serious injury.

She said, "They told me I'd never walk again and they gave me a 1percent chance. And I'm out to prove that doctor wrong."

Boyle is doing that with intense rehabilitation.

She is learning to walk with leg braces but wants her next steps to be at her fairy tale wedding this fall.

"I would like to walk down the aisle," she said

Channel 11's Jennifer Abney met with Boyle at the site of her reception, where the charity Jamie's Dream is serving as her fairy godmother of sorts.

The organization is giving her and Nathan the royal treatment from a four-tier wedding cake to a one-of-a-kind décor.

"We've purchased something brand new," said her florist. "So no one will have ever had it."

"For her to give up walking and doing the normal things in life helping a stranger, we had to help her," said Kim Shidl, the vice president of Jamie's Dream Team.

"I feel like everything happens for a reason. And I've met amazing people because of this injury and I want to be an inspiration to other people," said Boyle.

Boyle hopes that after walking down the aisle, she will be able to walk on the beautiful beach of Hawaii for her honeymoon.

To learn more about Boyle's story and find out how you can help, click here.

WPXI