ASK Paul Dawson what makes him tick, he'll tell you he's bloody-minded. I add determined, and brave and full of good craic. It's not an easy life for this man who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when he was 25 years of age.
Perhaps it wasn't such a surprise as, when a teenager on the sports field, he lost the sight in his left eye and was paralysed on one side.
The neurologist said in a letter to his parents that he suspected MS, however they made the difficult decision to keep the news from their son.
DID HE RESENT THIS?
"No. If I'd known it would have affected my life decisions," he says.
"Instead I went into the military fire service before serving with South Wales fire service. If I'd known I'd have had to declare it and probably wouldn't have the same opportunities or been able to lead such a full life for so long."
Paul, who was born in Scotland, met Julie from Wales at around the same time as his diagnoses and, typical of the couple, they didn't accept that news and decided to go for a second opinion but it was the same result.
They went to hospital to see the specialist together and have been together ever since.
And he's still succeeding in living a full life even thought he's a motorised wheelchair user. It's his transport, he's the driver, but his conductor is Julie, the other member of Team Dawson.
They are two sides of a coin and the love and respect is obvious.
SO IS A SENSE OF HUMOUR
"I don't mollycoddle him," Julie insists. We are sitting in the sunshine in their home in Narin, Co Donegal.
"Tough love sometimes, but it works. We were in a supermarket recently and he wanted something from a shelf, almost out of reach, and he asked me to pass it down," she recalls.
"I said 'do it yourself' and pretended to box his ears. The other shoppers stopped in their tracks and I got a lot of dirty looks. I just say to people he's out on day release, I'm taking him back later."
When we met there was big news.
Thanks to a demonstration model of a new style of wheelchair, Paul was able to travel over shallow water from Portnoo to the ecclesiastical Inishkeel Island and then travel the length of the beautiful strand at Narin. It was the first time the chair had been used on any Irish beach.
Paul and Julie and their three children decided there and then this chair must become part of the family and fundraising has begun.
The Magic Mobility Extreme X8 will allow Paul to travel to just about any destination. It can cope with sand, snow and shallow water. Certainly it's ideal for this man who has an adventurous streak and determination to achieve; Paul and Julie insist the chair will be available for others in the community and holiday makers to the area.
At an exciting fundraising event at the end of this month he will demonstrate the chair in the Narin beach car park and the Duck Street Jam Band will play.
This adventurer will tackle anything. Recently he was in Co Meath paramotoring in a basket blown into the air by a big fan.
"Then, when Julie went skydiving, I immediately wanted to do it too... exhilarating at 14,000 feet up, although it didn't go quite to plan and there were a few dodgy moments," he says.
Not content with this challenge Paul is tackling the towering 2,000ft cliffs of Slieve League next month. His new chair will take him half way up and the Donegal Mountain Rescue team will pull him up the rest of the way. Why? "Because I want to see the view and to prove that because I'm in a wheelchair and have a disability won't stop me," explains Paul.
Without doubt the biggest challenge to the couple came five years ago and it was huge.
"We'd begun to research stem cell therapy and discovered it was available at Artemis private hospital in India. I decided to give it a go, my condition was moving on and it was the right time to try to get this."
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Finding £60,000 in a hurry seemed daunting but the community took these two to their hearts and within six months the money as raised. They flew to New Delhi and for the next 40 days they were isolated in one room as Paul's stem cells were removed from his body, his immune system bleached out with chemotherapy and his stem cells replaced. Their room consisted of a hospital bed for Paul and a sofa bed for Julie, a bathroom and a window which had to remain closed at all times in case of infection.
But it was worth it as for the next three years he was clear of any progression.
"If I hadn't had those three years I'd be three years further down the line so it was extremely valuable," says Paul.
I asked Paul what drives him: "As I say, I'm bloody-minded, strong willed and I have a wonderful family and the support of a great community."
It's been a rough time. The operation was risky so he recorded four voice messages, one for Julie and one for each of his children, Thomas, Natasha and Tara.
"It was a goodbye message and it was difficult to do but I wanted to be honest with them all," says Paul.
"I wanted to tell them how much I loved them and that they were each capable of shining a light anywhere in the world."
They listened but there was no sadness, Paul was home and still the same bloody-minded darling dad.
Julie summed up the situation as "one day at a time".
"We stopped looking into the future a long time ago. We accept the situation and we'll take it one step at a time and deal with it."
