Amy Purdy
Amy Purdy was always adventurous, she loved to travel, and loved to snowboard. Immediately after graduating from high school, Amy moved to a place where it was cold, and she could snowboard whenever she wanted. However, unfortunately shortly after her move, she became ill, and was later diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. She was in a coma on life support, and was given a less than a 2% chance of living. She would eventually lose her spleen, kidney, hearing in her left ear, and most prominently, she would lose both her legs from the knee down.
About a month after losing her legs, she got her prosthetic legs, and was shocked by what she saw. They were extremely uncomfortable and she felt very limited. She questioned if she would be able to live out her dreams in life, which were to travel the world and her passion for snowboarding. This took a mental toll on her, and for months she spent most of her life in bed. Until finally, she was able to gain a new understanding of her condition, and looked towards the future. She started finding silver linings, such as, she could be as tall, or as short, as she wanted, wear any shoes she wanted, and her feet wouldn't get cold while she was snowboarding. She wanted to be able to snowboard again, and she wasn't going to let anything stop her. During her first time back on the mountain, she ran into some problems which discouraged her greatly. But, instead of giving up, she decided to find her own solution to the problem.
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With help from others, she designed the perfect pair of feet which she could use to snowboard. And because of this, she could continue snowboarding. In no time, she was back to work, and was inspired to help others in similar situations, by helping young adults missing limbs to participate in the sports that they loved. As well as helping children in poor countries obtain shoes. And as for her, she went on to win two back to back world cup gold medals in snowboarding. When faced with a disability, she persevered, and was able to go back to her normal, if not better, life.
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