A young disabled swimmer's dream came true yesterday when he met Paralympic hero Oscar Pistorius.
Adam Donnachie, 11, from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who was born with both his lower legs missing, said talking to Pistorius, nicknamed "Blade Runner", was the "best thing that has ever happened" to him.
The pair met at the University of Strathclyde's National Centre for Prosthetics and Orthotics, where the Olympic and Paralympic runner was touring the facilities and meeting patients and staff.
The visit came on the day Pistorius was made an honorary doctor of the University of Strathclyde for outstanding sporting success during a ceremony.
His parting words to Adam, who trains four times a week with the Scottish junior disability swim team, were: "I'll see you in Rio."
Adam said: "It was the time of my life getting to meet him, a dream come true. He's my hero because he just never gives up.
"Meeting him was the best thing that's ever happened to me. I swim with Scotland just now, we train four times a week, and I'd like to follow in Oscar's footsteps by going to the Paralympics.
"It's one of my goals to make it to Rio in 2016."
The schoolboy's grandmother, Nina Reeves, 59, said Adam was "stunned into silence" by the meeting with his hero.
"If there was only one person in the world Adam could meet, he would have chosen Oscar," she said. "He's followed him ever since he came on to the scene. I think Oscar was the first person Adam identified as being just like him, because he has two prosthetic limbs as well, in the same place.
"Most of the people he meets at the clinic only have one, and they are normally a bit older, so he can really relate to Oscar, who is a bit younger.
"I don't really think we could put into words just how much this means."
South African Pistorius, 25, who is due to compete in the 400-metre event at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, made history in London this year by becoming the first double leg amputee to compete at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
He said: "There are a lot of youngsters here [at the centre] I can identify with."
Pistorius was made an honorary doctor of the University of Strathclyde for outstanding sporting success in a ceremony yesterday.
"It is a great honour, to receive a doctorate is very humbling," he said. "My sister is a little bit angry at me: She studied for five years and she's not got one.
"When I told her, she was kind of happy for me but also a little bit jealous."
Pistorius joined hundreds of engineering graduates for the ceremony at the university's Barony Hall.
The sprinter, who gave the keynote speech at Strathclyde's Sporting Prosthetics Conference last year, said the award capped off an amazing year and he praised the institution for "leading the way in prosthetic research and development".
"Today is a very proud day for me," he said.
"The people of Scotland are always so warm and welcoming towards me, and I think of it as my second home here.
"Thank you to everyone at the university for their support, this truly does cap what has been an amazing year for me."
Professor Bernie Conway, head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, where the prosthetics and orthotics centre is based, said: "There can be no doubt Oscar Pistorius is a remarkable person and athlete, where the will to prepare to win is strong but is rooted in a positive life philosophy that centres on trust, equality and respect.
"A winner whose winning habit has been powered by dedication, commitment and an unshakeable determination to live a life without limitations or barriers, Oscar's road to success has been both inspirational and immensely challenging."
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