#WeTHRIVE Stories
These articles are featured in Amputee Coalition’s #WeTHRIVE story campaign to help raise awareness of the resilience, strength, and courage that people living with limb loss and limb difference have to transform their ordinary into extraordinary.
Tina Prigge
ONE MOMENT CHANGES A LIFETIME. My husband and I were each riding our motorcycles on a beautiful sunny day. A distracted driver (alcohol? drugs? phone?) crossed the center line and hit us head-on. Almost left for dead, I am grateful to the good Samaritans and EMT’s who...
Steven Duncan
BECOMING A BILATERAL BELOW-KNEE AMPUTEE ON MY 42ND BIRTHDAY. Hello everyone. My name is Steven. I just became a bilateral below-knee amputee on September 20th , 2024. I have been a type 1 diabetic for over 21 years. I have stage 3 kidney damage from the diabetes. I...
Robert Langer
SURVIVING A DOUBLE AMPUTATION, BTK. Never give up!! I thrive and struggle to survive daily in my home with no help. I live alone. I fall down alone. I pull myself up alone. It is a struggle but I'm surviving. It is a lot to deal with at 66 years old. It is a detriment...
Jim Murray
BACK ON THE BIKE, NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES. I remember being eight years old and already zooming around all day on my BMX bike. Backflips, downhill racing, I used to do all of that stuff until I got sick about a year ago. After the quadruple amputation due to...
Ainembabazi Bingana Anton
MY NEW LIFE IN 2024. Hello, everyone. I am AINEMBABAZI BINGANA ANTON also known as Osama Bingana Khalid. On August 2nd, 2024, while working on a job site, I got an electric shock that resulted in the amputation of my left leg below the knee. I am a graphic designer...
Rob Waxman
SARCOMA TOOK MY LEG BUT NOT MY ZEST FOR LIVING. In 2011, I had sarcoma in my right calf. I had surgery and radiation and thought I was finished with it. In 2022, it returned, and I had to have below the knee amputation. It was very stressful until I got my prosthetic....
Jack Thomas
DETERMINED THROUGH IT ALL. On September 4th, 2015, my right arm was torn off at the elbow by a conveyor belt at the recycling plant I was working at. I was in the hospital for only 6 days before being transferred to GF Strong Physical Rehabilitation Centre to regain...
Candace Robinson
DETERMINED THROUGH IT ALL. I have been a below-knee amputee since August 2021. I also have three fingers on my left hand partially amputated. I am thankful to GOD, family and friends for the prayers and support I have received over the past three years. It has not...
Kimberly Gonzalez
ACHIEVED SELF LOVE. At the age of 12 Kimberly was diagnosed with one chronic illness and one autoimmune Scleroderma and Raynaud's which caused her to have seven fingers partially amputated. At 21 she had two strokes and was diagnosed with anti-phospholipid syndrome....
Gary Trenkelbach
UNDIFFERENTIATED PLEOMORPHIC SARCOMA (UPS) TO BKA. This whole ordeal started about fifteen years ago +/- five years. I kept going to my PCM for a knot (size of a quarter) on my right leg about 6 inches above the ankle. The PCM kept saying if it was not bleeding and or...
Heba Morsy
INSPIRED. Why do people try to inspire others? Is it because we genuinely care about everyone's life, or because we need to feel that we can motivate and empower others? By inspiring others, we help them believe they can achieve anything they set their minds to. And...
Robert Jones
LOST IDENTITY. I have been a soldier for 35 years (20 years active and 15 years as a defense contractor), and when I lost my leg the military was taken away from me. I lost who and what I was. I spent many nights trying to figure out what will I do now that I don't...