University of Illinois Student Hopes to Become a Prosthetist

Shawna Culp is an amputee from Wheaton, Ill., who has received financial help for her prosthetic limb. Now she wants to devote her life to getting other amputees on her feet as well.

Culp elected to have her right leg amputated above the knee when she was 10. She was diagnosed with bone cancer when she was 8 and went through bone replacement and painful physical therapy. A staph infection developed after surgery and she was given the option of doing the surgery again or having the leg amputated.

“I was able to turn it into a positive,” she said. “Being an amputee is painful, but it’s not as painful as the physical therapy was. I’ve made being amputee a positive thing in my life.”

She is now studying Kinesiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on a wheelchair basketball scholarship. She hopes to become a prosthetist after she graduates in the spring of 2011. Culp said she’s always be fascinated by her prosthetic appointments and wants to make a career out of helping other amputees walk again.

But Culp is doing more than walk. She’s running and doing other athletic activities thanks to a new sports leg funded by Limbs for Life. The leg also allowed her to attend a running clinic with athletes and prosthetists from Ossur, one of the leading prosthetic companies in the world.

“It’s always special when we are able to help an amputee walk again or achieve their goals,” said Craig Gavras, Limbs for Life’s executive director. “In this case it means even more to me because she’s not only from my hometown of Wheaton, but has a desire to help other amputees.”

Limbs for Life is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It was co-founded in 1995 by Gavras, who after losing a limb realized the need to help less-fortunate amputees. The foundation provides financial assistance to hundreds of amputees a year in the United States. It also collected used limbs for distribution in developing countries such as the Dominican Republic, Turkey and countries in Africa. For more information, visit us on the Internet at limbsforlife.org.