For the third installment of our Diversity In Sport series, we welcome Tramore golfer Ian St John.

Ian's life was turned upside down when he discovered he had spinal cancer and was about to lose the use of his legs. The news came like a bolt from the blue with Ian saying “I had just finished playing a Pro-Am in Ballyliffin and then basically the next day I am paralysed. I have spinal cancer, I am probably never going to walk again and I have a battle to stay alive."

Today, Ian is back on the fairways thanks to the Paragolfer, a machine akin to a wheelchair that helps golfers with reduced mobility into an upright position to play their ball, before wheeling to the next shot up the fairway.

He now plays on the European Disabled Golf Association tour which see's him teeing it up in Portugal, South Africa and further afield.

While Ian says he will never accept what has happened to him, he has come to take the rough with the smooth, joking that it's "a wonderful time to be paralyzed. I would have never been going to these places if I wasn't paralyzed, so the irony is priceless in fairness."