Showing your mettle: Life with Limb Loss
Steff Woodworth is used to showing her mettle. A four-time cancer survivor, health care advocate and amputee, Steff has overcome some serious hurdles.
Steff’s first battle with cancer was when she was only 12 years old. Diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma, a cancer of the bone, she lost her leg right before she became a teenager. This opened up her world to living a life with limb loss.
“You just have to get on and get back on your feet.”
Steff has now lived with the loss of a limb for almost 50 years. She is an active member in the limb loss community and Gator Amps, the support group for community members with limb loss at UF Health Shands Rehab Hospital. She knows the importance of community and of helping others through the transition of losing a limb.
April, Amputee Awareness Month, is a good reminder to her and everyone else in the limb loss community that it is not an easy process, but having a solid support group, like the rehab hospital’s, helps. Today, Saturday, April 28, is National Show your Mettle Day, celebrated by the Amputee Coalition. On this day and every day, Steff is proud to show both her mettle and metal, and encourages everyone else with limb loss to do the same.
Visit UF Health Shands Rehab Hospital’s support group page to learn more. You may also email Andrea at gilban@shands.ufl.edu.