Ellie Bowen was just 13 months old when doctors told her parents they might lose her. She had contracted necrotising fasciitis, a rare bacterial infection sometimes called flesh-eating disease that destroys tissue beneath the skin. She survived, but her right leg had to be amputated.

Eighteen years later, the girl from Caerphilly, Wales who once feared she would never ride a bike like her siblings is about to represent her country on one of the biggest stages in sport.

At 17, Ellie Bowen is the youngest member of Wales's athletics squad. She will compete in seated shot put at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this year, fulfilling a dream she has held since she was four or five years old.

"I'm really proud of myself," Bowen said. "It's been my dream since I was four or five. I said I want to do sports and represent Wales and that's what I'm doing."

Her journey into athletics began almost by accident. Anthony Hughes MBE, who has helped shape many of Wales's most successful para-athletes as performance director at Disability Sport Wales, first spotted her potential. He introduced her to wheelchair racing, where she immediately began winning medals. But it was throwing that truly captured her heart.

"I had just started shot put, discus and javelin when Covid happened," Bowen said. "I went back after and was thrown into a competition and I won best performer. So I was like, 'oh, I'm okay at it' and then I just kept going and fell in love with it."

Bowen's mother Anne still remembers the fear of those early months. "We nearly lost her at 13 months old, but she's here and doing amazing," she said. "Growing up, she wanted to be like her siblings and would say, 'they can ride a bike, why can't I ride a bike?' So she did."

Her father Martin went above and beyond to help his daughter keep up. He built a specially adapted bicycle so she could ride with her family, then later constructed a campervan so she could travel to competitions across the country.

"She has just come on so well," Martin said. "Nothing has ever been an obstacle for her. Whatever you put ahead of her, she'll try and do it and if she can't do it, she'll get around it."

Bowen says she has never felt held back by her disability. "Because I had my leg amputated at such a young age, it was just normal to me," she said. "As I grew older, I think I did see myself as different but then sports made me see further and showed me I can do sport just like anyone else. It may look different but the feeling is the same."

When she steps onto the field at Glasgow's Scotstoun Stadium, Bowen will carry the hopes of a family who once feared the worst and now marvels at how far she has come.

"It would mean the world to me to win a medal but just being there, I'm so thankful," she said.