Greg McClure was a sporty kid growing up. On a trail bike ride one afternoon, he passed a truck on a quiet road.
"I went past the truck but I didn't go past the trailer, and there was a rush of wind and I blacked out," Greg recalls. "Then I remember an ambulance there for a bit, then I blacked out again. Unconsciousness."
Three days later Greg awoke in an Adelaide hospital and a doctor delivered this message.
"He said it looks like you're not going to walk again, you've lost the use of your legs. But the immediate thought in my mind was, I'm alive. I've made it this far. I'm alive, so I'll just take it from here."
That optimism was Greg's best tool as he slowly adjusted to life in a wheelchair. It only took a few years before he became involved in spinal cord research.
Now he's a regular at the University of Sydney's Lidcombe campus, where Dr Che Fornusek runs a biomedical research program.
Dr Fornusek is studying what's known as functional electrical stimulation (FES) - a technique which artificially generates body movements in people like Greg with spinal cord damage.
Dr Fornusek and Greg are using a modified tricycle kitted out with an FES system, in which electrodes are placed on Greg's legs as he sits in the trike, pulses are sent through his muscles which then contract in a way that forces his legs to peddle the trike at the pace of a slow jog.
"It gives him a lot of health benefits. It makes his muscles bigger, better blood flow, he feels better. Less muscle spasticity. His legs just generally feel better and that's the reason why he does it," Dr Fornusek says.
But for the 49-year-old McClure, training just for fitness isn't enough. Greg will be racing the trike in a first of its kind tournament in Switzerland in October.
It's called Cybathlon, a Paralympics-style event in which technology assists the athletes many of whom have a disability. Disciplines include a brain-computer interface race, FES bike racing, powered arm and leg prosthesis races, and exoskeleton racing.
It's a big stage for a man with big ambitions.
"You do get nervous but once you start up and running on the track and everything is going well, that fades away and you just enjoy the moment," Greg says.
Dr Fornusek adds it's hoped the event can lead to greater collaboration and technology breakthroughs that might benefit people with a disability in the longer-term.
"I think the main point is it gets the engineers out of the lab and having to actually address the practical problems in the community of people with a disability and applying the technology to it to actually make these systems feasible for everyone."
And for Greg, a chance to take stock and cast forward to the next milestone.
"Life was almost cut short at 26 but I've got a long life now and I'd like to keep it going, to try and create some merit and virtue with my life and this is helping me do it."
