Explain how the life of Stephen Hawking proves the proverb ‘Every cloud has a silver lining’.

At 21, Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with ALS and doctors gave him only two and a half years to live. This was the dark cloud in his life. Yet the disease turned out to have a silver lining. Before the diagnosis he had been bored with life and had not focused on his studies. Realising that he might not live long enough to finish his Ph.D, he poured himself into his work and research. Sharing a hospital room with a boy suffering from leukaemia made his own situation seem more bearable, and a dream about being executed made him realise there were still things to do. Despite losing his voice and the use of his body, he became one of the most famous scientists of his time and wrote best-selling books. Thus his illness, a terrible misfortune, led him to great achievement.