Double amputee’s a model of inspiration
BOUNCING on her prosthetic blades, double amputee Daisy-May Demetre beams as she models for a top fashion chain.
The seven-year-old’s zest for life is plain to see – but behind her boundless energy lies an inspiring story of determination to follow her dreams.
Born with a rare bone defect, the youngster has overcome her disability with courage and exuberance to make her way into the competitive world of modelling. And now she’s been snapped up by River Island – and even has her own Instagram following.
Daisy-May, from Birmingham, England, was born with fibular hemimelia, a rare defect that occurs in only one in 40,000 births where all or part of the fibula – the calf bone – is missing. It is even rarer for it to affect both legs, as it did with Daisy-May.
She had no fibula in her left leg and only a small one in her right.
The condition was identified while she was still in the womb, leaving mother Claire Reid, 36, and 35-year-old father Alex Demetre in shock.
Mr Demetre said: ‘It was heartbreaking. Her feet never formed properly, one came out like a ball and the other was very flappy.’
But thanks to her two sets of prosthetic legs – a pair of ‘activity blades’ similar to those worn by Paralympians and another more ‘basic’ pair for school – she can live life to the full.