When Erin O'Brien was born her left leg was 10 centimetres shorter then the other.
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Since then she has had 17 surgeries to lengthen the leg and try to fix her hip and knee problems.
Doctors have to break her femur each time they try to lengthen the leg.
And despite the constant pain, people "looking, starring and laughing" and having to get custom-made shoes worth more than $100 she isn't slowing down.
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The 20-year-old Albury woman is a second year nursing student at La Trobe University and said she grew up "watching nurses in action".
"I spent so much time in hospital and watching nurses treating and moving around me it was always something I was going to do," she said.
"I was born with Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency also known as Congenital Short Femur, a mouthful I know. That's what my sun tattoo represents 17 rays for the 17 surgeries I have had."
Her leg has lengthened five centimetres but still has constant pain.
"The surgery involves doctors doing an osteotomy, which is where they break your femur, they stick a rod into the bone through the femoral canal with a magnet sitting where the break is, and I have an external magnet which I stick on three times a day and it slowly rotates," she said.
"I do struggle a bit when I am on placement because I am on my feet all day and in a bit of pain but I am not going to stop doing it because of that.
"There is still a huge risk if I have more surgeries, because of the length discrepancy.
"I might have a fair few dislocations - there are so many different complications that come along with it."
Erin is passionate and said she will reach her goals.
"The ultimate goal for me is to be a paediatrics orthopedic so working with kids who have bone deformatives and really get in to surgery as a scrub nurse," she said.
Erin is a student ambassador for the university and encourages anyone contemplating tertiary studies to attend the open day on Sunday.
La Trobe University open day runs from 10am-2pm in Wodonga and across the Border Charles Sturt University is also holding its open day at the same time at the Thurgoona campus.