Plea to help amputees ‘step into Christmas’ with donations

STAFFORDSHIRE families are being urged to get behind a festive campaign to help amputees ‘Step into Christmas’.

Legs4africa, which collects unwanted prosthetic limbs to save them from going to landfill and matches them with amputees in Ghana, has helped thousands of individuals walk again while providing ongoing rehabilitation and mental health and wellbeing support.

From 29th November to 6th December, the charity will double all donations they receive, thanks to an anonymous donor, to increase their devoted mental health teams and provide more rehabilitation opportunities for amputees in Ghana.

Tom Williams, founder of Legs4africa, said: “The ‘Step into Christmas’ campaign gives hope to many families who are struggling to come to terms with life changing amputations. Receiving a prosthetic leg is only the first step in helping individuals get back on their feet.

Many amputees will have already experienced acute trauma in their lives resulting in ongoing rehabilitation and mental health challenges as they come to terms with the new phase of their journey which can be a difficult time to navigate.

Our peer counsellor training and rehabilitation support in Ghana has proved to be extremely successful and we want to extend the program further so that we can help more people get back on their feet and on with their lives.

“I appreciate that times are difficult for many at the moment but even a small amount can make a huge difference in changing a person’s life.”

Around 1.7 million people in Africa are awaiting prosthetic limbs, which are almost impossible to locate outside of the Legs4africa centres, with around 66% of amputees suffering from mental health issues due to limb loss in Western Africa.

Last year Legs4africa trained four new peer counsellors who are helping to change the narrative surrounding an amputee in their communities, while preparing individuals emotionally and physically to steer through their new phase.

Each peer counsellor draws on their own disability-related experiences to support amputees recover from stigma and assist them in developing hope and improve their lives.

With a dedicated counselling team in South Ghana, it is hoped funds from ‘Step into Christmas’ will provide the opportunity for a similar team in the North. Started in 2013, the charity has shipped over 14,000 prosthetic legs to African clinics that would have otherwise ended up in landfill. They currently partner with local mobility centres across the UK and recycle high-quality prosthetic legs with minimal environmental impact.

By 2025 the charity hopes to increase the number of limb fitting centres it works with across Europe, Canada and the USA, to recycle unused and returned prosthetics.

For more information and support the campaign visit https:// www.legs4africa.org/step-intochristmas/