Paris Paralympian Tiarnán O'Donnell was born with two legs.
As a Paralympian, he's looking to bring attention to what he perceives as a failing in Ireland versus other countries in the European Union.
But more on that later. His journey to the pinnacle of his sport is a fascinating one.
As a child, O'Donnell began to notice pain in one leg after a sports day. Little did he know, that little niggle would change the course of his life.
"This limp didn't go away," he says.
"We went to go get some scans and eventually I was diagnosed with a rare malformation in my right leg just behind my knee at the age of five.
"The condition kept getting worse and spread from just behind my knee, the whole way down to my heel, and just under my glute as well.
"It engulfed the whole leg and I had loads of operations but [they] couldn't get any improvement at all."
Eventually, after another procedure in Boston, O'Donnell was diagnosed with a rare tumour, becoming just the 16th person to have one anywhere in the world.
It left him with a big decision, particularly after further surgery damaged nerves in his legs.
" I just sat my parents down and said, 'I'm done fighting.' I was 48 KG at the time, at six foot. So I was extremely unhealthy.
"I wasn't eating because of the pain and the medication and the treatment I was going through to try minimise the effect of the tumour. So I just told them I was done fighting.
" It was affecting my college work. It was affecting every aspect of my life."
At a massive crossroads in his life, he decided to go the amputation route.
O'Donnell's positive mindset got him through a period that might have broken others, and the speed of his recovery surprised both the doctors and his family.
" Usually, when you acquire disability, you lose ability," he points out.
"But for me, losing my leg, I actually gained ability.
" We had a big going away [party] thinking I would be going to London for six months and I'd come back walking, but I had the operation and recovered really, really well.
" And then I flew back over six weeks later and spent two weeks in rehab, learning to walk and walked out the doors. So from my operation to walking out the doors was two and a half months - less. And that included six weeks at home.
" The power of your mind is incredible. I went in and I was smiling, going into the operating theatre. I was already thinking about like, 'let's go, let's do this, you know?' I don't think anything I do in life is in half measures."
Eventually, he tried out rowing having been contacted by his now sporting partner Katie O'Brien about giving the sport a go.
He had previously competed at a high level in wheelchair basketball but, having seen O'Brien set a world record in person at the Irish Indoor Championships, he knew he wanted to give rowing a proper go.
That decision would take him all the way to Paris, where himself and O'Brien came second in the B final.
" The amputation has led me to becoming a Paralympian and becoming massively successful in this field. And that never happens if I don't choose to amputate.
"So it's a massively positive thing and it has opened so many doors for me. It's so funny when people assume it's a bad thing, and to me it's the best thing in the world.
"If you asked me tomorrow, if I could wave a wand and give you two perfect legs, would you take it?
"I wouldn't, because I feel like I have a purpose and I can make change. Not just in sport, but for other disabled kids and adults around the country."
And it's away from that elite level of sport, at the Paralympics in Paris or Los Angeles, that O'Donnell wants to make a difference.
He is of the view that amputees in Ireland are treated poorly in relation to how they would be in other counties in the European Union.
" I'm blessed because I have the backing of Sport Ireland who are investing in me for LA," he says
"They believe I have good chances to be very successful in LA so they have purchased this prosthetic as an investment to my journey into LA, which I'm very grateful for.
" But my thing is, for those who aren't athletes, for those who don't get to come on interviews like this and don't have the platform that I have, things need to change for them.
"Because the prosthetics that are available to amputees in Ireland are prehistoric and we're a decade behind, if not more, behind the rest of Europe.
"We're the only country in the European Union that don't guarantee prosthetics for amputees."
And what O'Donnell wants amputees to be treated fairly, to give them a better qualify of life.
"My prosthetic is expensive, there's no doubt about that," O'Donnell acknowledges.
"€60,000 for a prosthetic, a new socket for my leg to go into the bionic leg, a decent foot to walk on. That's a €60,000 upfront cost but by providing that for an amputee, they contribute to society.
"They're able to work fulfilling jobs. They pay taxes, they're not at home claiming disability benefit.
"Then all of the other things like, because they have a quality prosthetic, they can socialise, they can play sports, so they can be healthy.
"Their mental health will be much better if they have access to go out for walks, to be functioning members of society."
For O'Donnell, the next step is for Ireland to acknowledge how many amputees that they have, and then to give them the care that amputees elsewhere in Europe receive.
"There is no statistic to say how many amputees there are in Ireland, so that's number one," he says.
"We need to know how many people there are in this community. That's arm amputees and leg amputees. Get statistics on that so that we can have representation and have an argument [to put forward].
"Then secondly, once we have that representation, I want to raise the standard to the European standard. So whether that you're in France, Germany, the Netherlands, all of these countries, my prosthetic that I'm wearing right now is the standard and that's the accepted standard.
"And if you want to go for an even more advanced leg, that's when you go down the private way, but raising the standard to the European level.
"We're not asking for the top of the range, we're just asking for the bare minimum, which is the European standard.
"This is not attack on the government. There are so many issues that the government have to face and there are so many illnesses and disabilities and conditions that they do have to consider. And I'm very, very aware of that. But it's my job now to shed light on this issue that faces a lot of people in Ireland.
" There's part of me after the games that was considering moving country, and living in a different country so that I could get the treatment that I should get in Ireland.
"That's the reality that some people are facing here in Ireland."
