LIFE AFTER LIMB LOSS
April marks Limb Loss & Limb Difference Awareness Month. Closer speaks to Josephine Bridges about her special journey…
When Josephine Bridges was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer aged just 17, surgeons urged her to consider amputation, but she fought to save her leg, believing that life as an amputee would put an end to the active lifestyle she loved.
The following years were full of surgeries, infections and pain, and by 2018 Josephine, now 34, felt her only option was to have her leg removed.
Afterwards, total strangers helped raise £100,000 towards a prosthetic limb which would allow active Josephine to run, climb and swim again.
And to re-pay the kindness back, she went on to found a limb disability charity which provides grants for those in need of prostheses and physio.
KINDNESS
Josephine, says, “I thought an amputation would hold me back from doing the things I loved, but it’s actually helped me get back to doing them. I’ve been on the receiving end of so much kindness that I couldn’t help but give back by starting Positive Bones.”
Josephine, a lecturer who lives in Birmingham, first experienced leg pain in 2007 with doctors dismissing her symptoms as teenage growing pains. But just eight months later, a scan revealed Josephine had stage three osteosarcoma.
She explains, “After being dismissed for so long it was a relief to receive the diagnosis, even if it was cancer, so I went to college the next day feeling positive about the future. But as I stepped off the bus, my left leg gave way beneath me and broke.”
Because she’d gone for so long without treatment, the cancer had weakened her bones. It was then that doctors warned she might not survive if she didn’t have her leg amputated. Josephine recalls, “It just wasn’t an option for me. I had an active lifestyle and loved the outdoors so I felt like my quality of life would suffer. I fought tooth and nail to save my leg, and eventually found a surgeon willing to remove the diseased bone and replace it with metal implants.”
REMISSION
The surgery was successful and Josephine went into remission. She went on to meet her husband James, a quantity surveyor, shortly before university and they married in 2013. She says, “James was so supportive. I was looking forward to our future but the only problem was my metal implants caused repeated infections and doctors were forced to replace them.”
By 2017, she’d had multiple surgeries and her body was starting to reject the artificial joint. “Although I still had my leg I began to wonder if I’d be any worse off without it,” says Josephine. “I struggled when walking down stairs and couldn’t even enjoy the outdoors pursuits I loved. I was hardly active at all.”
