But through his strength of will, family support and a huge dose of determination, Dominic has his eyes on the Paralympic Games.
Fifteen years after he almost died when he came off a moped in Cyprus, 36-year-old Dominic has made himself into a superfit athlete and a man to be reckoned with.
For three months Dominic, who is due to become a father for the first time in April, lay in a coma in Rotherham Hospital visited by family and friends who never gave up on him.
Doctors said he would never walk or talk again. Then he woke from his torpor and began to understand the extent of this permanent injuries.
Those early months and years are still a blur to Dominic, of Dalton Rotherham and there have been some bad times, but today the future is clear.
"I want to be in the 2012 Paralympics cycling team," said Dominic at the Energie Gym in Parkgate where he spends most of his time training.
"I am putting in around three hours a day training and I have just done a 25-hour bikeathon to raise money for Headway UK which helps those affected by brain injuries.
I have also joined Dinnington Cycling Team and I'm hoping to put more hours in with them when the weather gets better."
It hasn't always been so clear cut for Dominic, the youngest son of teachers Bill and Ann Hurley of Thrybergh, Rotherham.
"It would have been so easy to stay at home," said Dominic who met his German wife Doreen at Sheffield University while studying for HND Graphic Design after his accident.
"I would have been better off financially. I lost all my disability benefits by doing this kind of thing and I've had to learn to do things left handed.
"I could have stayed at home watching TV all day. I could be obese, paralysed and miserable but my family have tried to push me when I needed it and held me back when it was the right thing to do. They have been fantastic."
To look at Dominic on his bike he is every inch the toned and muscular athlete, not a trace of disability or imbalance. When he is cycling he is freed from his limitations.
"I am left with limited movement in my arm now and my right leg. When I first came to the gym and tried different things on different machines people could see something was wrong with me but when I get on a bike I just look like everyone else.
"I'm so happy at the moment but I sometimes wonder what I would be doing now if I hadn't had the accident but, I have to look at what I can do rather than what I can't do. I just have to be happy with what I have.
"I was just a kid when it happened and took things for granted but I have grown up in these past 15 years. It was a gradual thing after I came out of the coma and it was six or seven months and even years, I can't really remember, it's very strange.
At first Dominic would try and do what he had done before but it soon became clear that life would have to change.
"I tried to go out drinking with my mates like I used to," he said.
"When you've had a brain injury they say alcohol has three times the effect it normally would and I would be drunk on two drinks. One time I fell and broke my thumb. I would get drunk easily and they would worry.
"I realised that I was not going to get better or back to what I was and it's hard to accept that it's not going to come back but I think about it in a different way now.
"I felt sorry for myself and I was full of regret and I wished I had not done this and not done that and been born on a Tuesday but I realised I could wish all I wanted and it would not change things. Those first two years are a bit of a blur.
"My mum and dad have been brilliant all the way through and my brothers and sister have been great in supporting me all the time.
"Sometimes I think I should just get a job and forget about the Paralympics but I don't want to get to 60 years old and think, I could have done that."
n Dominic is desperate for sponsorship so he can devote himself to the Paralympics and his current sponsorship is coming to an end. If you can help, contact Dominic at dom@domdot.co.uk or visit dominichurley.co.uk