Running for me is living

At 38, Kathy’s life changed dramatically. She received news that her cancer was so grave, her leg needed to be amputated. Despite, losing her limb, Kathy was determined to run.  

“It made me feel so good to watch people run I thought to myself, I want to run like that.” So, she approached David – the founder of the Range of Motion Project and explained to him, that her current prosthesis was not letting her run. Her stump bumping into the socket caused pain and discomfort. David explained that she needed a running foot. However, these aren’t easy to come by and are very costly.

“80% of amputees live in low-income countries and only 2% have access to care.”

The Range of Motion project is a non-profit you can currently run for on the atlasGO Application, solving this problem. As a team, we love supporting organizations like this one, tackling important causes, too often unspoken about and left behind. This organization is powered by David, CEO, and founder of ROMP, who was diagnosed with a congenital defect in his leg at birth and has grown up with a prosthesis for the majority of his life. Their model is broken down in 3 parts, 1 – offering quality clinical care, 2 – investing in the local communities and 3 – advocating to enable those with disabilities to reach their full potential.

Thanks to The Range of Motion project, Kathy received a running foot and was able to run a  5k from start to finish.

“Running for me is living! I discovered I was born to run, because when I am running, I am absolutely elevated, and nothing can compare to the feeling of inhaling air into my lungs. With my eyes set on the horizon, I feel the whole world beneath my leg and prosthesis, kilometer after kilometer…that is what it feels like to be alive!”

To find out more about ROMP and LIM Innovations, sponsors of this atlasGO challenge, join their Party with Purpose event next week, December 14th. You can sign up here.

To watch Kathy’s full story along with two others thanks to ROMP click here.

Join Kathy on the app and choose the Mobility for Ability challenge to support ROMP on your everyday run/walk: https://atlasgo.org/

 

Magali Mathieu 

Chief Partnership Builder & Co-founder, atlasGO

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