Boccia champion Ho Yuen-kei on her journey to Paralympics glory

I was born in 1993 with spinal muscular atrophy, a disease that means your muscles get progressively weaker. My sister, who is four years younger than me, and I grew up in Siu Sai Wan, in the eastern part of Hong Kong Island. My parents didn’t know how to take care of me at first. When I was young, I could walk with some assistance. By the time I was in primary school, I was using a manual wheelchair and later I switched to an electric one.

I did all my schooling at the John F. Kennedy Centre in Sandy Bay, which offers schooling for sick and disabled children. Spinal muscular atrophy also affects the lungs and in primary school I was often in hospital. What might be a regular cold for most children could land me in hospital for a month. When I realised that I was different from other kids, it knocked my self-confidence. I wondered, “Why me? Why did I have this disease? Why couldn’t I walk?”