Disabled students battle against the odds in Hong Kong's pre-university exams

A 21-year-old with spinal muscular atrophy - a degenerative disease that has paralysed most of her body - beat the odds by achieving results that could qualify her for a university degree.

"I am actually a living miracle. Doctors said I would die as a baby, and then when I survived, they said I would die when I was three years old, then at seven. But I've lived until now," said Josy Chow Pui-shan, a student at SAHK B M Kotewall Memorial School in Kwai Chung, which caters for people with special educational needs.

She completed six subjects in the Diploma of Secondary Education exam, scoring 21 marks. Josy hopes it will be enough to qualify for the Bachelor of Arts programme at the University of Hong Kong.

People living with muscular dystrophy require constant and intensive care. The disease has hampered mobility in most of Josy's body, except for certain facial muscles and two fingers of her right hand. Unable to eat solids, she is fed through a tube three times a day.

All of Josy's textbooks and homework have been scanned onto a laptop, which she can read and type with a special mouse pad.

Although Josy spent most of her first 16 years in hospital, her disabilities have not stopped her from pursuing her studies.