Sururu, 30, lost both legs and three fingers on her left hand as a two-year-old after being hit by a train when she was returning home from her grandmother’s food kiosk.

Her father suffered a stroke from witnessing the accident, and Sururu’s mother died six years later, meaning that she was raised by her aunt and, later, her cousin.

Sururu, who practises several sports including wheelchair tennis, did not think at first that she had what it takes to be at the Paralympic Games.

Her boat capsized when she did the sport for the first time at a try out session in Mombasa, Kenya in 2018.

But it all changed when she went to Gavirate, Italy to be classified and introduced to to the Para rowing scene.

Her first-ever race there was a life-changing experience.

"(The other athletes) were rowing very fast like they were flying," she said.

"You know why I finished?

"I could have just said 'I have a blister and I just can’t continue'.

"But I wanted to fly just like them, I didn’t care if I go straight or not.

"I just wanted to go to the end line and that’s when I really wanted to learn the sport.”

Sururu recalls lacking training and missing a coach and a boat, but her family and friends chipped in so she could travel to a Paralympic qualification event in Tunisia in October 2019.

Her family opened a WhatsApp group and asked for donations, and in three days it collected about $3,000 (£2,511/€2,834).

Once she was in Tunisia, she borrowed a boat from another athlete and received tips from other athletes in the sport.

Sururu finished first in her event to book a ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

"Everything was about luck, luck and luck," she said. 

"I went there, and despite not going in a straight line (in the race), I got to be the fastest in the tournament.

"Just like that, I got to qualify."

Sururu approached the Games, which took place between August 24 and September 5 in 2021, as a "school" where she could learn from the world’s best.

"I was truly inspired by the rowing community at large," she said. 

"I was inspired to do more, but I was like, 'I love this game. I see what these people are doing and what they can do and I lack these skills, the equipment'.

"But see, I can actually do what they are doing. 

"Who knows? Even better than them."

More than a year after Tokyo 2020, Sururu practises rowing indoors in the hopes of competing at Paris 2024.

After using a wheelchair for the majority of her life, in May 2022 she started learning how to walk with prosthetic legs after receiving a grant from Ottobock, the leading global supplier in prosthetics and orthotics.

"I started walking at the age of 30," she said.

"But you feel like a baby in a grown woman’s body.

"Every step you make is celebrated.

"You get to fall all over.

"I’m falling everywhere because I just want to learn."