Seeing folk like this… battling through… makes me feel ashamed of how I niggle at my own aches and pains…
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My brother is a double amputee. His legs were amputated through the knee when he was just 9 months old. It was that or live his life in a wheelchair so my parents took the amputation option.
He’s never really let his disability hold him back. Walking is much harder when you don’t have knees but he’s always managed. He’s married with 2 lovely daughters and owns his house. He has always worked and is now a taxi driver - he drives a car with hand controls. I’m very proud of him.
This is us on his wedding day.
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What a super photo Mandy… 
walking without knees must, indeed, have been challenging… what a brave, persistent guy… you are right to be proud of him. 
My nephew had his left leg amputated above the knee down to just above the ankle when he was 9 years old…they “unzipped” the flesh, cut away the bone, then placed the prothesis (bone/knee) inside… doing a magnificent bit of surgery. Then they “zipped” the flesh up again… OK not quite as easy as it sounds…
When I visited the next day, expecting to see a rather horrific sight… he was proudly showing off his “new” leg, which merely looked just like it did before, only a little bruised. (I admit to being a coward… I was very relieved that I could gaze upon it… and upon his smiling face… and smile broadly with him.)
He is now over 6ft and the strapping father of two lovely kids… and I use him as an example that Cancer is not always the end of things…
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Oh wow, what an incredible story.
My brother was born without tibia bones in 1972. I imagine if he had been born more recently there would have been something similar to this available that would have allowed him to keep his legs.
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This surgery was revolutionary in its day… and carried out at Birmingham Hospital, although the family lived in Suffolk. He returned to the hospital as he grew up, in order that the bone could be lengthened accordingly.
The Docs said that if the Cancer had hit him 2 years earlier… he would have had to have complete amputation from mid thigh… as that was the standard in those days.
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Stories to make my eyes ‘leak’. 
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Bill… my nephew was 9 and he stood in the Surgery, holding his Mum’s hand, as the Doctor told them both that the Cancer was too advanced and that the lad only had 6 months to live. Imagine the shock/horror of that brief conversation.
Well, we (the family) pulled together and supported each other, kept the morale high… and blasted well proved that Doctor wrong… 
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Can you believe that my brother’s operation took place on my Mum’s birthday. How cruel is that?!
I think your parents were very brave to make the decision, knowing just how hard it would be for the little lad… certainly in the those days…without his legs … but they were thinking of the rest of his life… and he has done them proud !
I think your Mum’s birthday is a day to be celebrated on both counts. 
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You’re right Stella. They made the best choice in the circumstances and the operation was performed while he was young enough to never know what it was like to have legs.
My parents used to tell a little story about when we were both very young and I asked " how did they take Chris’s legs off Mummy?" and he said “they just undid the belt of course” 
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I knew a girl in UK that had cancer in her leg and had a partial amputation that caused her so many problems and she could no longer ride, so she wanted her leg taken off from the knee.
It took her many years to actually convince the surgeons, but eventually they agreed and she had her operation.
She has never looked back.
I am so glad everything worked out well for her.
( I think the fact that my nephew still had his own ankle and foot made all the difference. )
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My Grandpa lost a foot when very young to gangrene, sadly, there must have been many more amputations, before the advent of penicillin.
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Medicine is constantly advancing… thankfully…
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