Solange Nyiraneza's life began with no shortage of hardships. She became an orphan after her parents were killed during a home robbery when she was just five months old leaving her 12-year-old sister to care for Solange and her brother. 

Then when she was five years old she fell and broke her left patella but hid it from her older sister for fear of her reaction. Eventually, when the injury had exacerbated she was taken to a doctor and then to a hospital where they found out that an infection caused by the injury was cancerous. 

"My sister, she had a bad life because she was raising me and my brother," said Nyiraneza. "I was young, even my brother was young. So it was difficult. She was fighting for us, while she was young."

“We hid the injury for one week from my sister as we were afraid she’d be angry,” she explained. “When we eventually got to the hospital they tested my bones and told me I had bone cancer and had to amputate.”

As an amputee, many more challenges came Nyiraneza's way and she explains how despite a change in attitudes towards her, her older sister always cared for her as best she could, sometimes going without food to ensure the health of Solange and her brother. 

"There were some families who were not happy to see me when I became an amputee. I had a disability, so they were saying 'these people who are disabled, they're not important, she will not grow up', but my sister fought for me," said Nyiraneza.

"These people I remember them saying, 'don't take care of that girl, go and take care of her brother, he is a man, he can grow up, he can do something better than that girl'. But my sister said, 'this is my little sister, this is my little brother, I have to take care of them both'."

Nyiraneza, now 28 years old, credits volleyball with changing her life. After taking to the sport in primary school she has travelled all over the world and appeared at three Paralympics including Rio 2016 where she was part of the Rwanda team that became the first African women's team to play at a Paralympic Games. 

“Without sitting volleyball, I don’t know where my life would be,” she said. “If you play, they can give you some money if we’re flying to different countries. I still live with my sister and I help pay the school fees of her three kids. Now we are fine. We are not bad like before.”

Back for her third Paralympic Games, it hasn't been the best start for Rwanda losing their opening matches against world champions Brazil and then Slovenia on Saturday but now they are readying to give their all for a historic win.

On Monday evening they will play world number one Canada with the odds stacked heavily against them and Nyiraneza promises to "fight" as she has done for much of her life. 

She is proud of how far she has come despite her disability and wants those who cast her off to see what people are capable of despite whatever they may have gone through.

“Don’t look down on people with disabilities,” she said. “There are people with no disabilities who never achieve the things we do," she said. “Now I’m here in Paris. I went to Rio, I went to Tokyo, I went to different countries. 

“I fly around the world, while some people have never even touched an aeroplane. You see can do anything. We can rise more than others.”