Liam "Jock" Cullinane inspires many people in Galway. Known to thousands as "the guy on the bike", he is frequently seen pedalling his specially adapted tricycle through the city's streets or making the pilgrimage out to Leisureland in Salthill for a swim.
He oozes positivity. His single-minded determination has impressed the hundreds who have come to know him. And yet not many know the hurdles he overcame since he contracted a rare and potentially deadly form of meningitis just over five years ago.
Currently, Liam's speech is improving daily and he is able to walk slowly around his city centre apartment.
This is far along the road from April 1993, when he lost the ability to speak or regulate his muscular activity. He had to spend 15 months in hospital.
Behind the charm of this 31year-old, who recently got a thrill when a local newspaper nominated him as one of the 10 sexiest men in Galway, lies a determination which overcame adversity and forged a new independent life in his home town.
Liam has had a colourful past. He left Colaiste Iognaid in Galway in 1985 to join the French Foreign Legion aged 18.
He stayed with the legion for seven years, becoming a sky-diver with its special forces.
He was just beginning a new life as a commercial diver when his illness almost killed him in 1993.
He was just about to complete a diving course in Fort William, Scotland, when he was struck down by listeria meningitis.
Because he lived alone, it was days before he was discovered. He lay unconscious in a Scottish hospital for weeks after being struck by the obscure and powerful ailment.
His recovery continues. It was a hard battle from the beginning. He was transferred to Merlin Park Hospital in Galway, where his family still live, in December of that year for another six months before he was finally free to attempt to rebuild his life.
The early prognosis was poor. A specialist at a brain injuries unit in Edinburgh wrote at the time: "Sadly, our prognosis is that he will remain with significant difficulties, even though he still harbours the hope that with more therapy he will return to the fit, independent young man that he was before."
Since then Liam has spent all his energy attempting to prove the physicians wrong. He taught himself how to use a wheelchair, a walking frame, and crutches, before eventually being able to walk unaided. Gradually, his speech improved immeasurably since those dark early days.
A friend, Tom McEvoy, built him the distinctive tricycle which is regularly seen on Galway's streets. Again, it boosted his independence. He moved into his own city centre flat as soon as he could. Occasionally, heartless thieves have taken his special bike, but Liam's spirit has always seen him through.
Whenever it was out of action "I would be completely lost without it," he says. "I would have to telephone someone for a lift and arrange taxis. It would annoy me, because independence is extremely important to me."
Since his illness, Liam has begun an Open University course and indulged his long-term interest in photography by staging his first exhibition, featuring pictures of the Himalayas, at the end of last year. "For anyone who is handicapped, the Open University is extremely helpful," he says.
For the past year, Liam has studied world religions as part of his course. He says two faith healers, both based in Co Roscommon, have greatly helped his recovery. Despite questions, he has no wish to reveal their identities.
"Trying to explain what they do is like being beamed back to the Victorian period and trying to explain nuclear energy," he jokes. His playfulness and sense of humour have carried him through his illness over the past five years.
His time with the Foreign Legion brought him to places like Rwanda, where he took part in the first evacuation of European refugees, and the Central African Republic.
Further proof of his determination came just last month, when he went on holidays to Corsica on his own to visit some of his old Foreign Legion friends.
"Like any job, you have your ups and downs, but the legion just has more big ups and downs", he says. "When you join the legion, a lot of people are still young mad-hatters. But after a few years you have to go and get a life. Many of the officers are married now and they were delighted to see me making the trip over."
It is this battle to achieve a normal life, against great obstacles, which has slowly driven Liam Cullinane on through the past five years. He greets every day with a single-minded positivity. That's why he is so hugely popular as he cycles slowly through the streets of Galway.