Paralympian Tristan Knowles becomes an amputee mentor

At nine years old he was diagnosed with bone cancer in his left leg and was given a 70 per cent chance of surviving. He had 10 courses of chemotherapy and an above the knee leg amputation.

At 12 his cancer returned, this time to his lung. He had a lung lobectomy and 12 bouts of chemotherapy.

This time there was only a 10 per cent chance of survival.

Fast forward a few years and the now 40-year-old is absolutely thriving, and beams when he says how lucky he is.

Read more: Looking for something to do in the Illawarra?

He's a competitive wheelchair basketball player, five-time Paralympian, world championship winner (multiple times), financial planner, dedicated uncle and much-loved partner to Gina Stanwell.

The Bellambi resident also received a Medal of the Order of Australia, was named NSW Wheelchair Basketballer of the Year in 2002, and has just completed training to become an amputee mentor at Port Kembla Hospital.

"One of the single biggest things that helped me was my doctor organised, one of his former patients who had, had the same operation to come in and see me about a week after my amputation," he said.

"I was nine and he had this 14 or 15 year old teenage boy come in ... he came in with his girlfriend and I thought he looked pretty cool."

For this interview we met Mr Knowles courtside at Snakepit Stadium, he plays for the Wollongong Roller Hawks. As he watched other players honing their skills on the court, he admitted there was only one moment he thought the cancer would beat him - he was 12 and it was in his lung.

"I thought I'm gonna die, I'm not gonna make it," he said. "I was hysterical, I was in tears.

"I learned the first time that the two places you don't want to have cancer are your brain and lungs. I'd seen kids pass away and not make it who had either a brain tumor or tumor in their lung."

Read more: All the local Illawarra sport you need to know

He may have only had a 10 per cent chance of surviving it, but his doctor (with his parents' approval) told him it was a 50-50 chance.

Thinking the numbers were half on his side was exactly the inspiration he needed to beat cancer.

"I've always been someone that's related things to numbers," he said. "It was a white lie that saved my life."

At 17 years old he was chatting with this father when he realised, unexpectedly, he wouldn't change a thing.

"We were in the car and he goes 'if someone knocked on the door when we got home and said we could change it all, we could go back and take away the cancer, take away the amputation, what would you say?'," he said.

"It scared the crap out of both of us how quick I responded, I said no."

Read more: All the local Illawarra news you need to know

That's when he realised how much he'd learnt about himself and it gave him a heightened sense of appreciation for life.

"Statistically I shouldn't have made it," he said.

So much chemo when he was younger did take away one of his dreams.

"I always saw myself being a dad when I was young," he said. "Gina and I are super close to our two nephews and niece. We get to do all the fun stuff and get to carry on like kids with them, and then hand them back at the end of the day."

Back to basketball, Mr Knowles' trophy cabinet is pretty full - he won a Paralympic gold in 2008, back-to-back world championships, five national league titles in Australia, as well as the Spanish League Cup, Turkish League Cup, and was European club champion.

Read more: Illawarra court and crime stories

Is there a medal or championship he still hasn't won? Mr Knowles looks a bit bashful and answers: "I'm in a really fortunate position that the answer's no".

As he looks towards the future, which includes training for the 2024 Paris Paralympics, Mr Knowles said life is good.

"I've been really lucky, and having one leg probably opened up doors that wouldn't have opened up had I had two legs," he said.

"It sounds weird, but I'm thankful and grateful that I'm an amputee."

Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens. Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.