An 8-year-old girl paralysed in an instant after practising a common surfing manoeuvre.

It was her first ever surfing lesson, she was on a beach with her dad and Nakita Wright, 8, was being taught the basics.

But in a freak occurrence during one of the simplest manoeuvres she suffered a rare spinal injury and now faces life in a wheelchair.

The little girl was on holidays with her parents in Portugal when her father, a keen surfer, decided to give her a lesson.

Nakita and her mum, Natasha. Via Facebook.

She was a keen gymnast and was being taught how to stand up on the board. Together on the sand her dad, Russell Wright, 34, showed her how to lie flat on the board and jumping up while still on the beach.

The eight-year-old from the UK had almost perfected the technique when she gave it another shot, but just as she pulled her knees in and stood up she fell to the ground crying out in pain.

The Sun reports that the little girl staggered and fell, crawling across the sand to her mother, Natasha saying, “Mummy, my legs are sleeping.”

Her mum Natasha told The Mirror:

“Nakita was on the beach with her surfboard and her dad was teaching her to lie down and jump up.

“She did it and she fell awkwardly. She had broken her leg earlier in the year so she hobbled around a little bit, crying.

“Then all of a sudden the crying stopped and she said, ‘Mum, I can’t move my legs.’

“Within three or four minutes of that she said, ‘Mum, I really can’t move my legs.’"

Nakita will never walk again. Via Facebook.

Natasha said that none of them realised what had happened.

“We thought it was a trapped nerve or something.

“We thought she could give it a bit of rest and walk it off.

“I brushed it off, wrapped a towel around her and said, ‘It’s alright.”

The family went back to their hotel where Nakita lay down and slept for a while but when she woke up she told them she still couldn’t move her legs.

They took their daughter to hospital where doctors at first thought she had a lesion on her spine. But after two days of steroids she still couldn’t feel her feet.

Nakita was flown home to the UK and there doctors searched for answers.

Nakita "crawling". Via YouTube.

Finally, after Christmas they sat down Russell and Natasha and broke the news.

The doctors told them: “We have spent a lot of time on the internet over the last few days. We have agreed that this is what we think it is.”

Nakita had suffered a condition called surfer’s myelopathy.

It is rare condition caused by hyperextension of the back, which pinches blood vessels running along the spinal cord and cuts off the blood, killing nerves.

She was practising jumping up from lying flat on a surfboard while on the beach when she cried out: “Mummy, my legs are sleeping.”

Natasha said that a year ago they were preparing to go away on holidays never knowing how quickly life could change.

"This time last year we were getting ready to go on holiday and this year we are doing things with Nakita in a wheelchair."

"She is still the same person and she is able to do the same things, but she can't move her legs.

"Every day I could break down, but I don't. It just makes me think, don't take life for granted because this could happen to anyone at any time."