Despite having been athletic since she was seven, Ms Fathima Zohra, who is quadriplegic, sometimes still feels like she does not belong when she works out at the gym.
"At the gym, people tend to stare like they are wondering what I'm working out for. But disabled people need to work out too," says the 24-year-old, who was left paralysed from the neck down after suffering a spinal cord injury in a car accident in 2017.
"We have hobbies just like everyone else. It's the same with working. Disabled people have dreams and aspirations too - we don't just work to keep ourselves busy, which is what many people assume."
The desire to promote greater inclusivity and disability representation in society drives Ms Fathima, who also goes by the names Zoe Zora and Zora, to speak up for people with disabilities.
The programme manager at Running Hour, an inclusive running club, posts candidly about her experience as a person with disability on her Instagram account @zoraaax6, which has almost 32,000 followers.
Outside of social media, she has featured in advocacy videos and fund-raisers for people with disabilities, and speaks to peer support groups.
She is also a part-time model, wishing to increase disabled representation in the media and advertising. "I am loud about my disability and put my disabled body out there to speak up not just for myself but also for my community, because we deserve to be heard," she says.
"For 20 years, I lived without a disability and I know what that feels like. But when I was suddenly disabled, people stopped looking at me like I was still a person or a woman. People defined me only by my wheelchair.
"It's not a good feeling."
She hopes society can be "more kind" and empower people with disabilities instead of pitying them.
For her efforts, Zora received in 2019 the Goh Chok Tong Enable Award, which celebrates exceptional people with disabilities.
She has come a long way since her accident, having been unable to accept her situation initially.
"When I couldn't move or do anything on my own, all I could think about was - is this how the rest of my life would be like? And if that was how it was going to be, I didn't want to live. You're active your whole life and now you have to ask people to help you eat, give you your phone, move out of bed."
But an exchange with one of her previous doctors spurred her to turn her life around.
"I asked him when I would be able to walk again, and he looked at me, started laughing, and said I have very great ambitions," she recalls, adding that she cried after leaving the hospital.
Zora says she initially felt "demotivated" by the doctor's words, but the incident became the catalyst for her to take control of her life.
She decided to start exercising more.
A year and a half after the accident, her fitness regime had reaped dividends, with her regaining limited control over her arms and, crucially, achieving a feeling of greater independence. Today, she is able to use her phone and put on make-up by herself.
"I think I'm still accepting what happened to me, because this isn't something you just accept easily. It's going to take me a lot of time to completely accept it, but I would say I'm getting there."
