Hi fellow Steemians! My name is Daniel Lee and I'm an aspiring Paralympic wheelchair racer! I'm really glad to be able to be part of this community. I've always had a desire to share my story in order to inspire and I hope that by sharing more often here, I will be able to make an impact.
Just a little introduction about myself. I was born with a condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta (Type 1) a.k.a. brittle bones disease. If you've ever watched the movie "Unbreakable" starring Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis, I have the same exact condition as Samuel L. Jackson's "Mr. Glass". I've broken my bones so many times as a kid I lost count a long time ago.
Because of my condition, I was never active in sports. Most sports would come with potential for injury and I was automatically excluded from it by the people around me. I've always wanted to give marathon running a try, simply because I feel that there's so much similarities between marathons and life, and that I can draw so much lessons from it. It wasn't until 2012 that I received a new sports wheelchair from a group of people from Acts Church and with that, it allowed me to go for my first 10km at the Standard Chartered KL Marathon. I completed my first 10km in 1hour 04 minutes. Quite an accomplishment for a first-timer but I felt awful with cramps and dizziness after it all ended.
Later that year, I decided to join my next 10km run at the 2012 Nike Run but with better preparation this time. I did much better than expected and completed it in 45 minutes. It was also in that same year, I went for my first wheelchair race as well. Shockingly, I came out in first place against 180+ other wheelchair users, some of them were national athletes. It was then that I realised that I could have a potential in sports, specifically in wheelchair racing.
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I went on to complete other marathons, and in 2013, I participated in a 100km ultramarathon called the Xtramile Day to raise over RM168,000 for the education of underprivileged children at the Dignity for Children Foundation.
I will be sharing more about the other experiences that led me to my current journey in sports in upcoming postings. Now, my goal is to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics Games as a wheelchair racer. I hope that by doing my best to strive for my dreams, I will be able to inspire others to do the same.
If you'd like support and follow me on this journey, check out my social media accounts as well.
http://fb.com/pushtoinspire http://instagram.com/pushtoinspire/