“I want people to understand that just because you don't look like the other people in class, in the gym, on the street, or whatever that you can still try,” he said. “People will tell you that you shouldn't be doing something but there might be that one person or one event that tells you that maybe, just maybe, you should at least give it a try. That changed my life.”

“I don't know how to live without this fight inside of me now,” he said. “Most of the people in my life don't understand and I don't expect them to. They didn't survive what I did. They don't know the fire inside."