RIDERS HAVE FAN FOR LIFE
Child shows love of Green and White by sporting logo on his prosthetic leg
REGINA It’s a Saskatchewan football fan’s dream — a private play date at Mosaic Stadium with some Roughriders.
Not long ago, Duncan Beauchamp, not quite three, and his Regina family lived that dream.
It’s one of several encounters the family has had with the team after Duncan’s mom, Dianne Beauchamp, posted a picture on her Facebook page of her son’s prosthetic leg. It’s laminated with the Riders’ logo. Her friends, also huge fans of the Saskatchewan franchise, encouraged Dianne to post the photo to Rider Nation.
“I did that and it sort of took on a life of its own from there,” she said. “A wonderful lady, who I don’t even know, sent me a message saying that she had taken the post and linked it to a private Rider fan page that has some of the players and coaches on it.”
Touched by Duncan’s Rider pride, a fan in Toronto nominated the little boy for the Wireless Age prize package.
“He went back to Rider Nation and said, ‘Hey everybody, we’ve nominated Duncan and here’s the link,’ ” Dianne said. “It just exploded. Everybody started nominating Duncan.”
The Thursday before the Labour Day Classic, Duncan was awestruck when he got to present Rider Willie Jefferson with the Wireless Age’s Player of the Game Award.
“According to Duncan, that’s his best friend now,” Dianne said.
Giving from the Green and White continued. Dianne and her husband, Greg Stephenson, Duncan and his sister and brother received tickets to the Labour Day game.
“We were on the field for the kickoff, the opening ceremonies and were right beside the tunnel itself as they all ran on to the field,” Dianne said. “That was pretty exciting for the whole family.”
Following the Banjo Bowl game, the Riders invited Dianne, Greg and Duncan for a play date at Mosaic.
“They took us through the stadium and then out through the players’ tunnel and about five of the guys came running over and said: ‘Hey Duncan. Hey buddy,’ ” Dianne said.
Kneeling on the turf, the players got down to Duncan’s level and showed him their helmets and signed a football for him.
The little boy is proud of his latest prosthetic leg.
“He’s always been all about football — kicking the ball and throwing the ball and just playing catch all of the time,” Dianne said.
Now, whenever a Rider game is on TV, Duncan says: “Those are my friends!”
“I think they have a fan for life,” Dianne said, laughing.
Duncan has fans wherever he goes. Even in grocery stores, when people spot the little boy’s green prosthetic leg, he gets high-fives from strangers.
It was not a reaction Dianne could have predicted when she was 20 weeks pregnant and learned Duncan had a condition called fibular hemimelia, a birth defect where the fibular bone is missing.
Duncan was born with a few toes and partial ankle and foot. At 15 months, he had an amputation — removing the residual bones — at the Montreal Shriners Hospital for Children. A month later, the toddler was fitted with his first prosthetic leg in Montreal.
When he returned to Regina, Duncan started seeing Taryn Seel, a certified prosthetist at the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre (WRC). Seel has built three prosthetic legs for Duncan to fit his growing body.
Given the choice of what material would be laminated on his fourth leg, the little boy was adamant it be green and have the Riders’ symbol — “With very little influence from myself, seriously,” Greg said, laughing.
Depending on a child’s growth, a prosthetic leg lasts between six months and a year.
The first step in creating a prosthetic leg is making a cast of the patient’s residual limb. Modifications are made on the plaster model of the cast, and then a “check socket” or temporary socket is fabricated to determine the optimal fit.
“Once we’re happy with the way the check socket is fitting, we move on to a definitive socket and that’s when we get to laminate the socket,” Seel said. “We take special requests for colour or fabric.”