The physical reality of living as a double amputee has fundamentally shaped how Sean Fong has moved through the world.
Growing up in Fiji, Sean had a highly active childhood playing in rivers, waterfalls, and oceans before an accident at seven years old changed everything.
While playing near sugarcane trains, the train ran over his leg at mid-shin, but it was later amputated close to his right hip, which he understands was due to infection and tissue damage.
Long before access to advanced technology, ramps, or accessible infrastructure existed in late-1980s Fiji, Sean had to pioneer his own daily survival.
With his first artificial leg not arriving until nearly two years after the accident—and an early prosthetic arm that felt like an uncomfortable, restrictive harness system akin to a “big, uncomfortable bra”—he relied on resourcefulness.
He famously used an old skateboard to wheel himself across flat surfaces and depended on classmates to push his wheelchair or carry him across stairs.
Following his parents’ split, Sean’s connection to Australia began when his mother met an Australian expat working in Fiji.
After the family settled in New South Wales—initially traveling to Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital for artificial limbs before moving to the Hills area near Parramatta—Sean finished high school in Australia.
Navigating teenagerhood came with unique challenges, including being steered away from practical subjects like woodwork due to safety limitations on his single arm, which left him carrying deep personal reflections on the accident and his transition into a new country.
Growing up, Sean faced a society often unequipped to see past his physical difference. Reflecting on the shift from being an active participant to an observer, he shared:
- Exclusion from sports: “All through school. Go and sit with the girls. The boys are going to play rugby… And it used to eat me up inside.”
- Encountering stigma: People quickly reduced him to a label, assuming his physical losses meant he also lacked coordination, sports intelligence, or understanding. As Sean recalled: “I’ve just lost limbs. It’s not like I lost my eyesight or I don’t have any football IQ… And that became my label. You’re the double amputee.”
- Dating and societal ideals: As a young man, he was told by peers that girls would never like him because no media representation of “Prince Charming” featured missing limbs.
- Navigating nightlife: “When people get drunk, they say inappropriate things”, Sean noted, saying he didn’t avoid clubs and pubs but didn’t want to be there when those interactions happened.
Despite these hurdles, Sean developed a fierce internal resilience. He built a life with his partner of over sixteen years, recently having children.
While modern prostheses feature carbon fibre, microchips, and aerospace materials, Sean notes their limitations for his lifestyle. He has told prosthetists his goal was to have a lifestyle like Bear Grylls, a lifestyle that includes getting wet, sandy and dirty.
“Just build me the toughest thing that you can on a hinge joint and I’ll run with it.”
This pragmatism also carried him to elite sporting success. After a chance encounter at the North Sydney Olympic Pool, he entered Paralympic swimming, eventually claiming a short-course world record in the butterfly.
When a torn rotator cuff halted his swimming career, Sean seamlessly transitioned into Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Wrestling entirely without prosthetics—which would otherwise get in the way or injure training partners—he treats the mat like a high-level game of 3D chess. Because ninety-nine point nine percent of his opponents have two arms and two legs, his unique mechanics often give him an unexpected tactical advantage.
I recommended Sean as a guest for a TV show, made by my colleagues at the ABC, and he has appeared on that program too.
After spending several years working in office administration and managing a Brazilian jiu-jitsu gym in Sydney, Sean and his wife made a major lifestyle shift and moved to Mudgee in the NSW Central West.
Starting out as a local lifeguard before transitioning into disability support work Sean works for Aspire MMA which is a mixed martial arts (MMA) gym in Mudgee. There Sean gets to coach the kids and adults and share his knowledge and experience.
Sean is also a motivational speaker.
Whether dealing with the daily fatigue of public curiosity—where casual strangers treating him as a spectacle can drain his emotional battery—or mentoring individuals with disabilities, Sean says his focus is rooted in shared empathy.
Sean maintains a grounded, philosophically humorous perspective on physical deterioration and human vulnerability:
“The wheels are going to fall off this thing. Either your body or your brain is going to give up. Nobody gets off this ride alive.”
For Sean, living as an amputee is not about seeking pity or dwelling on the past; it is an ongoing, adaptive relationship with oneself, defined by humour, self-reliance, and a refusal to let a label define the boundaries of what is possible.
This article is based on an interview with Sean which will be featured in The Limb Shift podcast, to be released in October 2026, and which is available on Apple, Spotify, YouTube and via https://thelimbshift.com/
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