Toby Lyndon had no idea his image had gone viral until his phone started ringing off the hook on Wednesday.
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The flurry of calls sent him online, where he found video captured of him crawling up the stairs at Unanderra train station had spread across the internet like wildfire.
The 26-year-old double amputee was last week filmed navigating the station's stairs, first pushing himself backwards up the stairs with his hands, then coming back down in his wheelchair.
He is forced to descend backwards, holding the railing as his wheelchair bumps precariously from step to step.
It was far from a one-off endeavour for Mr Lyndon who regularly catches the train from Unanderra to the University of Wollongong, where he studies physics.
He lost both legs in 2009 after he was hit by a train while walking on tracks towards North Wollongong on his way to meet a mate.
Rather than dwell on his own challenges, Mr Lyndon said he felt for others unable to easily access the platform, including parents using prams and even tourists travelling with large items of luggage.
"It's difficult but I'm fit and I can do more than people who don't have access to the stairs at all, people in an electric scooter and that sort of thing," he said. "I feel lucky in a way that I can get out of my chair and do it really."
He now hopes the footage will lead to a station upgrade with lifts to make life a little easier for disabled travellers.
"In the end I'd just like to see the train station get upgraded, or that at least the issue gets more attention, more views and more voices are heard on the subject," he said.
Also in the video is Bec Schmidt, who posted the footage on her Facebook page Elevators for Unanderra Train Station. By Thursday afternoon the page had hit 2100 likes.
Ms Schmidt suffered a stroke in 2008 and now has a limited ability to walk unaided.
In the footage she is seen slowly navigating the stairs, step by step, while holding on to the railing as an elderly lady dragging a wheeled shopping bag struggles up to the platform ahead of her.
For more than 20 years, disabled residents and the community have campaigned for lifts at Unanderra.
The steps, which are exposed to the elements, are the only way in or out of the station's island platform.