When teaching assistant Kavita Biswas first asked for a wheelchair at the airport, she was struggling to walk even short distances.
It was a world away from her active life practising yoga and dance alongside her full-time job in a Hong Kong school.
Suddenly, in her mid-forties, she found herself relying on a cane and, at times, a walking frame.
Knee pain had steadily taken over her life, reshaping her days and narrowing her sense of what might still be possible.
The pain began around four years ago and was initially diagnosed as a meniscus tear. Biswas, who lives in Hong Kong’s New Territories, wrongly assumed it would settle.
“I actually just continued with my daily routine, my exercises, to the extent that the pain became unbearable and I found it difficult to walk,” she says.
By the time Biswas had reached her mid-forties, her knee had become so painful that simple daily activities were difficult. Sitting on the floor with her students was no longer possible. Photo: Kavita Biswas