Chemotherapy, losing a leg and witnessing four members of her family succumbing to cancer are just some of life's curveballs Amy Conroy faced by the age of 14.
You would never know — her admirable thirst for life and batting away of 'self-pity' shine through from the first minute of our Zoom call.
It's been a perilous journey for the Paralympics GB wheelchair basketball star who is weeks away from representing her country at Tokyo.
Chemotherapy and losing a leg are just some of life's curveballs Amy Conroy faced by 14
But this has not been a one-woman journey; more like 'three musketeers' in the 28-year-old's words, with father Chris and sister Alice.
As a 14-year-old Amy gave wheelchair basketball a go in an attempt to gain confidence and fulfil her sporting endeavour after leaving hospital bald and with no eyebrows because of cancer treatment.
'Back in my two-legged days, I was always really sporty,' Amy tells Sportsmail. 'I got a pain in my knee which ended up being cancer, fought through that, but I didn't respond to the chemotherapy as well as I would've liked and had a leg amputated.
'It was my dad who had suggested I try wheelchair basketball. I was quite reluctant at first — the misconceptions I had were it's going to be lame, I've been spending all this time learning to walk so I don't want to associate with being back in a wheelchair.
As a 14-year-old Amy gave wheelchair basketball a go in an attempt to gain confidence
'I was quite shy, self-conscious and I remember pinky promising with my dad that if I rang with our special code, he would pick me up straight away!
'But then I just fell in love with it quite quickly. I realised this is what I want to do and I want to get good at this.'
The trio would practice late at night, with Amy's 'numerous' misses at the basket collected by her sibling and father.
It was watching the Paralympics World Cup on TV in 2008 that inspired the Paralympian to take up the sport in the first place. 'I started at 14 or 15 years old for a local club in Norwich called Lowriders,' Amy recalls. 'The turning point for me was seeing my now team-mates in the Great Britain team playing in the Paralympics World Cup.
'There wasn't much exposure of disability sport so I wasn't really aware of it, and it is why I'm so passionate about it now.
It has now led to her younger sister Alice joining British Wheelchair Basketball's Inspire a Generation programme
'I used to play with my (prosthetic) leg in and I'd wear trousers to hide it. The coach said, 'If you want to do this properly, you have to take your leg off'. I remember feeling mortified thinking, 'Absolutely not'.
'I was worried about it all night thinking, 'What if people say things?' and then this fateful moment came, I took my leg off and it was fine — no one cared.'
It has now led to her younger sister Alice joining British Wheelchair Basketball's Inspire a Generation programme, which will give thousands of people the chance to try the sport.
Alice will be one of the Community Activators — a role which sees her deliver the sessions over a six-week period in south-west London. The sessions, due to start by early September, span the UK and are aimed at both able-bodied and disabled participants — one in five in the sport are able-bodied. They are due to start by early September.
'It's a big drive to get people involved in wheelchair basketball because it doesn't have the publicity that it needs, people aren't necessarily aware of it,' says Alice. 'So it's a big drive to train up loads of activators around the country to be in a positionto run a six-week course of sessions.
'It's open to anyone in the public to really
