On their way to their first ever self-defence class, Rhoda Garland and Clifford Portelli were somewhat hesitant, wondering how much of the class they would actually be able to follow.

“I was extremely sceptical,” Mr Portelli, who has a spinal cord injury, admits.

“I’m paralysed from the upper chest down and have no lower limb function. What sort of martial arts was I capable of performing?”

Yet two solid hours of elbow strikes and punches later, the two members of NGO Breaking Limits, together with CEO Noel Aquilina, emerged breathless but elated and empowered.

“Before I came to the lesson, I didn’t know how much I was going to be able to do because I don’t have any natural balance,” Ms Garland, who has spina bifida, explains.

“But a lot of the exercises and the moves we performed were done sitting down. Towards the end of the lesson, I found out that even though I don’t have any balance, that’s actually to my advantage.

The lesson, which included other people with various forms of disabilities, was mapped out by martial arts instructor Mark Spiteri, who diligently researched adaptive martial arts and tailor-made them to suit the individual abilities of everyone.

See their story above.