It's hard to imagine that surgeons had to remove one of her ribs, deflated one of her lungs and insert a titanium rod and five screws into her spine to rectify severe scoliosis when she was 15.

"I was always one to push the boundaries," she said.

"I went back to netball after nine months and that was earlier than my surgeon wanted me to.”

Her sheer determination was what enabled her to reduce her recovery time after the anterior fusion, her father Greg Featonby said.

“It's unbelievable, what she's achieved since the operation is inspirational,” he said.

“When she went in for it, we really didn't know what the outcome would be, whether she would be able to compete in sport again.

“She was determined to prove everyone wrong.”

Improving her core strength was crucial in enabling Zoe to regain mobility after the operation, and that strength will be the key to beating Ninja Warrior's obstacles.

“The one thing my doctor told me to do was to strengthen my core,” she said.

“Because my back would be quite weak, I had to have a really strong core to compensate for that - so I took up pole dancing.

“I somehow knew the upper body and core strength I'd developed on the pole would be a useful weapon."