Jacob Cachia started working in a Sliema café this week. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

At the end of his first day of work in a Sliema café 17-year-old Jacob Cachia, known as Titanium Man, asked his mother to sit at a table so he could make a cappuccino for her before they headed home.

“His cappuccino was the best I have ever tasted. It must have been the extra ingredient he put into it – his love,” his mother, Sarah, says proudly.

For Sarah it meant that, after surviving a rare brain infection that left him with a physical disability, her son was being given a chance.

On Wednesday Jacob started working part-time at Café Cuba and, on that first day, he began by learning how to make juices and coffees.

“I had lots of fun. I’m looking forward to learning more about food preparation. I’m grateful for this opportunity as it will help realise my dream of, one day, opening my own café,” says the teenager who is studying Business and Commerce at the Malta College of Arts Science and Technology.

Jacob developed hemiplegia, the partial paralysis on the left side of his body, after contracting a rare brain infection two years ago.

Part of his skull had to be replaced with a titanium plate – earning him the nickname Titanium Man.

Following this experience Jacob and his family set up the Facebook support group Survivors Malta and made it their mission to spread their message of hope.

Seeing Jacob able to work is another milestone.

His cappuccino was the best I have ever tasted. It must have been the extra ingredient he put into it – his love

His mother explains how the idea came through the Facebook group The Salott when one of the groups’ creators, Francesca Fenech Conti, encouraged her to write to Kitchen Concepts, that owns a chain of restaurants. She sent an e-mail and was later told to take Jacob to Café Cuba.

Operations’ manager Steven Hyzler said the company wanted to give Jacob an opportunity to, one day, run his own coffee shop. Staff at the café are helping him learn the ropes. They placed a stand near the coffee grinder – usually operated with two hands – so Jacob can rest the recipient on the stand while he pumps the beans into it with his right hand.

“Jacob and I have three things in common. We both support Manchester United, we both attended the same course at Mcast and we’re both into catering,” Mr Hyzler said as he encouraged big companies to employ people with disabilities.

Ms Cachia agreed. “The law says two per cent of companies’ staff should be people with disabilities. This two per cent is not just a number. Behind it there are people with dreams. They are capable of doing much more than they think,” she says, as she recalls the satisfaction of sipping the first cappuccino Jacob made for her.

Jacob jokes and says that, while he is aware his cappuccino tasted like heaven to his mother, she might be biased.

“I will learn to make one that is really good to everyone,” he says confidently as Mr Hyzler adds: “That’s the plan. After a couple of months he’ll be able to make a top cappuccino, like our top baristas.”