Daniel Ajello was born with his right hand and right foot missing, and his left leg ends at the knee.

He has been using prosthetic legs since he was twelve months old and competes in many sports including football, swimming, javelin, archery, and boxing.

“I decided I wanted to study Occupational Therapy in my gap year after I realised I’d been doing OT on myself all my life. “

Daniel was born in Zimbabwe and his family moved to Gisborne when he was 4 years old. He came to Otago Polytechnic to study Occupational Therapy in Dunedin.

“I’ve found the programme really engaging, I’ve really grown with it and I’ve learnt a lot on my placements. There is a lot of thinking outside of the box and you become a great problem solver at the end of the day.”

Daniel is currently in his third year at Otago Polytechnic and hopes to graduate in March.

“Dunedin is a neat place to study, it’s such a condensed student community.”