Liam McGarry was a keen young sportsman when one bus ride saw his life turn upside down. Having won a local treble with Cray Valley U18s as a teenager, he was offered a contract at his local club Dartford FC in Kent, then in the National League. 

Football was my first love, and without sounding big-headed it was obvious quite early on that I was pretty good. I made my way up through the ranks, captaining the London County side and winning the Kent league" he previously told Paralympics.org.uk. "I played centre half and revelled in the physical side of my game. l loved getting stuck in, loved a tackle, but could also play a bit when I had the ball at my feet."

A full-time stint at Dartford didn't materialise into the right career path for McGarry and he chose to study sports science at Bournemouth University where he thrived as a rugby player after being persuaded to join the university rugby team.

It was then in June 2017 that things started to take a turn for the worse for McGarry. “I had just had my last exam. The next day, we went out to watch the British Lions play New Zealand. I started to have a few strange feelings in my legs, but initially thought nothing of it," he tells the Daily Mirror.

“Then the feeling started to get more severe, and I stopped drinking. When we got on the bus home, it got a whole lot worse. One minute I was a fit and fully able sportsman on a night out with my mates, I got on the bus, we went over a speed bump and my legs felt like they were filling with concrete," he explains. "At the end of the bus ride, I couldn’t stand. I had to be cut out of the top deck.”

It turned out Liam had a rare neurological condition called transverse myelitis which causes inflammation of the spinal cord. After being told he would never walk again, with sport seemingly seized from him, he was sent into a downward spiral telling his parents that he didn't want to live. 

He soon found weightlifting and the idea of competing for Great Britain sparked optimism and a newfound hope for the now 27-year-old going on to compete in numerous powerlifting competitions.

“Then I found weightlifting and there’s no doubting it, the sport and the dream of being a Paralympian saved my life. It gave me a reason to go on. There’ll almost certainly be tears when I represent my country at the Paralympics because seven years ago, I didn’t want to be alive" he told the Daily Mirror. 

“I’ve had 31 surgeries and I’m here to show everyone to never give up. If I take a moment and think of the adversity I’ve had it would be hard to believe but that makes me all the more proud that I’ll be at the Paralympics hunting for a medal. I can’t wait to show others that you can literally do anything if you put your mind to it.”

McGarry is one of 230 British Paralympians competing at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games and will be opening to beat his personal best of 232kg. 

“This bruiser from Dartford might just upset the world,” he says.