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Speaker 1: Jub Mission with Jonesy and Amanda Pitt. Awareness Week is

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Speaker 1: this week. It's a chance to shine a light on

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Speaker 1: a number of people in Australia with a limb loss

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Speaker 1: and to remind all amputees that they are not alone.

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Speaker 1: Our next guest is the woman behind a phenomenal program

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Speaker 1: called amp Camp, a program for Australian use living with

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Speaker 1: limb loss. Emma Ridgeway, Hello.

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Speaker 2: Good money. How are you very well? Ever?

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Speaker 1: Are you an amputee?

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Speaker 2: I am. I'm a balachal amptee belowee. So I've lost

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Speaker 2: both legs below.

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Speaker 1: The nie and do you mind me asking how that

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Speaker 1: came about?

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Speaker 2: Vascular disease? So I had poor circulation. My first leg,

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Speaker 2: i'd actually broken my legs so badly they couldn't say that.

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Speaker 2: And my next leg I bumped on the wheelchair, so

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Speaker 2: I had to remove that one too.

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Speaker 1: How old were you when that happened, Emma.

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Speaker 2: It's been recent years. I'll be in the last six

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Speaker 2: or seven years, quite recent. I'm really comfortable with it,

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Speaker 2: to be honest. So my legs were handy, my real legs, man,

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Speaker 2: but I still got legs now, I'm still mobile, still active.

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Speaker 3: And when I first met you. I did a charity

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Speaker 3: trivia night for you guys. I remember I first met you.

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Speaker 3: You were there and you were on legs. You're on

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Speaker 3: two prosthetic legs, but I did even notice, and that

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Speaker 3: it was after the course of the night you said

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Speaker 3: that I'm actually missing two legs, and I went, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 3: really is that true?

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Speaker 2: And you are often forget I haven't got legs to

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Speaker 2: be on my It's not how I think of myself.

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Speaker 2: It's not what makes me. It's the same for many amputees.

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Speaker 2: So often someone will say something to me about my

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Speaker 2: legs and I think, well, how do you know? And

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Speaker 2: then I realized I'm wearing a dress or something, and

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Speaker 2: they can deceive. So I don't think to say to

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Speaker 2: people I'm Emma, I have their legs, because that's definitely

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Speaker 2: not what makes me, and for most pts that's the case.

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Speaker 1: So how many amputees are illustrator and what are the

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Speaker 1: main causes that people have limb loss?

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Speaker 2: That's a good question. You're looking at about eight thousand

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Speaker 2: amputations a year, and that could be everything for our

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Speaker 2: arms and legs, fingers and toes, all sorts of amputations

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Speaker 2: and in yourself well as you're probably looking at a

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Speaker 2: good two thousand solid limb loss with arms and legs.

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Speaker 2: Most of those would be due to things like chronic

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Speaker 2: disease such as diabetes about fifty percent, or vascular disease.

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Speaker 2: It's a really common thing.

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Speaker 1: And tell us about young people then who have amputations,

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Speaker 1: So I know that's what amp camp focuses on. How

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Speaker 1: hard is it to be a young person and be

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Speaker 1: an amputee?

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Speaker 2: I think growing up it's difficult, especially in your team years,

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Speaker 2: as it is to be an amputee, and you're finding

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Speaker 2: yourself and finding where you fit in groups, and like

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Speaker 2: I said, that's hard enough of a challenge, let alone,

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Speaker 2: when you're different, you're physically different, and ultimately you are

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Speaker 2: disabled in that sense, but you're quite capable of it's

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Speaker 2: really finding finding where you fit, finding that you're okay,

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Speaker 2: identifying because often you don't see yourself in posters, you

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Speaker 2: don't see yourself in marketing. That's changing quite a lot,

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Speaker 2: but it's really important, I think, to find valuing yourself

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Speaker 2: and find your purpose.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, for young people, how important are things like

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Speaker 1: the Paralympics where they we do see different kinds of bodies?

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Speaker 1: Is that really useful for young people.

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Speaker 2: I think the Paralympics are a wonderful platform to disability

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Speaker 2: across the board and that's really increasing awareness for disability

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Speaker 2: and I guess consequently ability in celebrating those sorts of things.

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Speaker 2: But we have to remember that the Paralympics are it's

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Speaker 2: peak performance and peak performance in sport, so often amputees

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Speaker 2: and limb different. For people living with limb difference, the

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Speaker 2: first thing people will say is where you can be

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Speaker 2: a Paralympian, But setting the standard and the expectation that

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Speaker 2: you need to be at the peak level of performance

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Speaker 2: in order to be valued is really difficult. You wouldn't

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Speaker 2: expect that of enable bodied person. You don't expect every

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Speaker 2: able bodied person walking down the street to be a

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Speaker 2: peaed performing athlete, and yet we sometimes draw that as

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Speaker 2: the as the initial expectation of someone living with a disability.

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Speaker 2: Whilst it's really good for awareness, we also need to

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Speaker 2: put into perspective that we're just everyday people living our

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Speaker 2: best life and being exactive as possible.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, well, Emma, it's always great to talk to you.

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Speaker 3: To find out more about amp camp head to ampitnewsouth

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Speaker 3: Wales dot org dot AU Emma Ridgeway, thank you, thank you,

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Speaker 3: thank you, Emma Jonesy and Amanda's