TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Tseng Kuan-hua, an osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) sufferer often given the nickname "glass doll" because of his condition - better known as brittle-bone disease - has always faced life with a smile, even when in intolerable pain.

Despite having undergone more than 20 operations on his bones since childhood, 26-year-old Tseng lives life to its fullest and has won numerous trophies in wheelchair track and field competitions, has completed a round-Taiwan wheelchair marathon and has won the championship in a nationwide wheelchair ballroom dancing competition.

Tseng, who calls himself a "bullet-proof glass doll," says that while "I may have brittle bones and bone deformities, my mind is invincibly strong."

He has had OI - a genetic disorder characterized by bones that break easily - since birth. His parents felt that he was a "soft" baby when they held him in their arms, but they did not take him to a hospital and he remained undiagnosed until the age of 6, when he was hospitalised after he fell to the ground and could not get up. Even coughing could cause a new fracture during his teenage years.

Since then, he has had to make frequent hospital visits for endless rounds of surgery, which have caused him to miss school for periods of up to 18 months.

"I'm going to the butcher tomorrow," he would laughingly joke when told he required more surgery. Despite being a "veteran" of the operating theater, Tseng admits that he still feels scared before he is wheeled in.

"Before I received the operations, I was afraid to go out in shorts during the summer because my legs were curved in the shape of the figure 3, dotted with steel pins," he says.

Currently a student at Hua Fan University in Taipei County where he is majoring in architecture, Tseng is about five years senior to his classmates because of his illness.

He says he is used to getting raw deals on campus or being left out by his peers, but adds that "it's OK to be left out. I've learned to enjoy myself."

Tseng grew fond of physical exercise with the encouragement of a physical therapist at the Cheng Hsin Rehabilitation Medical Center in Taipei City.

"I felt so happy when I found I could work out like normal people. It feels darned good to be soaked with perspiration," he says.

Numerous trophies stand on shelves in his room, representing his victories in the sports arena. He has taken part in Taipei City's special games for the mentally and physically challenged since he was a junior high school student and his victories include gold medals in the 100 meter and 200 meter wheelchair race.

He represented Taipei City in the 2008 National Disabled Games and won the 110 meter super hurdle race, and taking fourth place in the 100 meter wheelchair race.

"On the track, the fastest gets the championship. But in life, victory is more difficult to define," he notes.

Before he was brought into contact with ballroom dancing or international standard dance, his job was a solo act. Ballroom dancing in a wheelchair, however, is a different matter in which dancers have to coordinate and interact with their partners, a discipline that has taught him about sharing and collaboration with others, he says.

Most of the surgery Tseng has undergone took place during his teenage years. During that time, he was befriended by a number of wheelchair-bound people who invited him to join a campaign calling for a barrier-free environment in Taiwan for the physically challenged.

When he was 15, Tseng joined these activists on an ambitious round-the-island rally, a "mission impossible" that they completed in 10 days.

He remembers that when they embarked on the long journey from Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei City, President Ma Ying-jeou, a keen runner who at that time was a minister without portfolio, ran with the group for a while to lend them his support.

The "wheelchair army," however, endured a horrible start, with lashing rain and difficulties on the road almost dashing their determination to go on. It took almost a whole day for them to make the relatively short journey from Taipei City to the city of Xinzhuang in Taipei County.

Tseng says he will never forget how they toiled on the road in order to make their voices heard. Some of them had to put up with bleeding arms and hands because their wheelchairs were shabby, but none of them complained or asked for a rest stop.

Still, he adds, their suffering helped illustrate just how much pain physically challenged people sometimes have to bear - indescribable pain that most normal people can never even dream of.

The China Post/ Asia News Network