BEAUTY’S A LIVING LEG END
Ankle-to-knee surgery
A Texas beauty queen had surgery to turn her ankle into her knee after part of her leg had to be amputated due to bone cancer — and she plans on getting back on the pageant circuit to show off her new pins.
Jillian Williams, 20, recently underwent the revolutionary rotationplasty surgery after being diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma.
Surgeons removed 14 inches from the middle of Williams’s leg and reattached her shin, ankle and foot around the opposite way to act as a knee joint — which she puts into a prosthetic lower leg that she has named “Leni.”
“I do not miss my leg, which is crazy,” the upbeat Texas Lutheran University student told Barcroft Media.
Williams also had to shave her lustrous brown locks off for chemotherapy, but says she has now embraced her new look — even if some rubbernecks on the street haven’t.
“A lot of people tend to shy away from me because they are scared, like ‘ Why does she look like that? Why is she bald like that? Is she crazy?’ ” Williams said.
“I have embraced it full-heartedly, but I know some people see it as a freakish thing and are taken aback by it.”
Williams is also a talented volleyball player and is back training three times a week, working toward her dream of competing in the Paralympics.
“My biggest goal that I’m reaching for right now is to play Paralympics volleyball for the women’s national team. I hope that it is there in my future,” Williams told Barcroft.
“I also want to compete again for Miss Texas, so I want to get my body back in shape to where it needs to be for that.”