The best help is self-help, and 22-year-old Paul Alves makes it perfectly clear that he is a very independent young man who sees his wheelchair as a mere detail in his determination to embrace life and enjoy it to the fullest.

Born with spina bifida and raised in a household with two siblings, brother Chris and sister Linda, Paul's parents - Sammy and Mary Jane Alves - determined from the outset that their son's disability would not deter them from raising him as a normal child which, of course, he is except for legs that don't work.

Growing up, he was neither mollycoddled nor pampered, and received the same affection and discipline as the other children. Today he is proud of his parents for taking such a healthy approach to his disability.

Attending Friendship Vale school from the age of two and a half, the little boy thrived, and he remembers those formative years with great happiness.

"Personally I liked the school," he says. "The main thing was you didn't get stared at by the other kids. There were no questions. You were treated like a normal kid, which is different from the rest of society. I did all the activities that the other children did, and the school didn't hold you back. It was like a regular school. We did all the subjects, including English and math, but there was also therapy for different needs if required. It was a mixture of school, a minor clinic and a nursery."

In fact, if there are two things which really annoy this positive thinker today they are: not being treated as "normal", and being stared at because he is "different".

"It is not a good feeling being stared at," he says. "You always feel like something is wrong with you."

Like others with disabilities, Mr. Alves also wishes people would not talk to him either as a though he were a child, or through others.

"I am a perfectly normal human being apart from my legs," he assures. "I live my life doing what I like to do."

"Normal" is a word which recurs frequently in his conversation, and small wonder given that that was the watchword by which he was raised.

After Friendship Vale, Mr. Alves attended Elliott School, Whitney Institute and ultimately CedarBridge Academy - years which, for the most part, were also happy ones, although he does recall his mother having to campaign for some years to get a wheelchair ramp installed at one school, and didn't give up until she succeeded. Today, he notes, things are much better in that respect.

Mr. Alves also credits his mother with introducing him to wheelchair tennis - a sport which he hopes will become a career.

"One day she came home and said, 'Let's go, there is someone I want you to meet'. Apparently, the meeting was already arranged at the Tennis Stadium, and the man was Rick Ruscio, a wheelchair tennis player who was here on vacation. I watched him hit a few balls, and then he told me about the wheelchair clinic in Colorado and I said, 'I'll go for that.' I am pretty much up for anything, especially when it comes to tennis. So, with the assistance of the Committee of 25 for Handicapped Children and Bermuda paralympian Sandy Mitchell they bought me the special wheelchair and sent me there."

The experience proved invaluable, for Mr. Alves learned such skills as manoeuvring his wheelchair so that it doesn't interfere with his game, how to hit the ball correctly, and more.

"You need good hand and eye coordination," he says. "They taught me different drills to work on my mobility, and I also worked on the basics of forehand and backhand. I was instructed by Randy Snow, the number one ranked wheelchair tennis player and coach. He was really smooth, quick and controlled."

From then on tennis became Mr. Alves' passion, and he plays as much as he can. Being the only wheelchair tennis player in Bermuda, however, means he does not have a partner in similar circumstances, so he has "no other choice" but to play with able-bodied players - something he sees as positive.

He cannot, however, enter tournaments here, so he travels to wheelchair tournaments abroad thanks to the WindReach International Foundation, and has already competed twice in both the Florida Open and the Ontario (Canada) Open. Soon he will leave for a tournament in Hilton Head, South Carolina, where he will compete in both singles and doubles events. This trip is again being sponsored by the WindReach International Foundation, plus the Bermuda Paralympic Association, (the latter of whom is holding a fund-raiser on September 8 at Horseshoe Bay. For further information telephone 238-3502).

While in Hilton Head, Mr. Alves will also take the test that hopefully will lead to a licence as a wheelchair tennis instructor, something for which he has been training assiduously here.

"My dream is to be a full time wheelchair tennis pro," he says. "There is a league called the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour which includes 100 tournaments in 30 countries, and with international rankings and prize money. It involves wheelchair players from all over the world. My goal is to get in that and become a ranked player."

Meanwhile, Mr. Alves, who graduated from CedarBridge Academy in 1999, is working part time as a telephone operator at the Bermuda College in order to earn money towards his tuition at the College, which he will enter as a full-time student in January to study for an associate degree in art. Thereafter he plans to go on to college in Florida to complete his studies for a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, majoring in art.

The ambitious young man stresses, however, that once he has his degree tennis will come first.

"After college my plan is to travel to play tennis and also to teach. Later on, when my playing years are over, I will do the art. It is something to fall back on."