Life and Limb

Presented by Ottobock Healthcare, this episode welcomes Prince Edward Island’s Lucas Arsenault, a former professional kiteboarder and national champion. Making a living in the ocean as a kiteboarder has its risks, but Arsenault never imagined losing his leg while snorkeling between competitions. A shark attack just two years ago in Turks and Caicos left him an above-knee amputee. Now as a keynote...

Angie Sandow is an inspirational speaker, humourist and musician who captivates audiences of all ages with her powerful performances and story of resilience. She shares insights on responding to challenges related to her limb difference, primarily others’ attitudes toward her. Finding strength in adversity, and in her love for music, football and motorcycles, she’s a big proponent of “getting out...

Lynn DeCola is a retired prosthetist, orthotist and technician, and now an amputee coach with clients across Canada and the U.S. through her Florida-based company Lifelong Prosthetics. She’s a Mental Health First Aider, a writer, and an international online amputee support group host, which she founded, called Amputees Preparing Amputees for Life. Lynn truly understands the unique challenges that...

After experiencing life-changing amputations several years ago, Kevin Gray quickly discovered the power of connection. During his rehab and recovery he met others who were searching for the same thing — honest conversation, guidance, and hope from people who had  been there . Those early conversations became the foundation for something much greater. Today, Kevin is the founder and CEO of Limb Los...

Growing up in Victoria, British Columbia, possibilities in life were boundless for teenaged Andrea Swallow. Her teenage years were good, with social, athletic and academic endeavours accompanied by no more angst and pressures than that of other typical youth around her. Then she became an amputee, a survivor of a motorcycle accident. In a thrive magazine feature several years ago, Andrea shared wh...

In so many ways, Rouzalin “Roz” Hakim was transformed in ways she could never have imagined with the loss of her left leg above the knee four years ago. Today, she’s a force in the amputee community, especially when it comes to peer support. But not just that. She’s also a respected author, public speaker and advocate for the amputee community. And what makes her so unique is her complete honesty...

Despite facing her share of travel challenges as an above-knee amputee and someone living with rheumatoid arthritis, those experiences have fueled Tanya Rabe’s passion for making travel accessible to everyone. That passion includes finding detours around roadblocks to make for accessible adventures. Tanya does that for clients with and without disabilities through Right Foot Adventures, her own tr...

Dionne Chambers is a personal injury lawyer, experienced in claims for clients with a wide range of serious injuries including amputation, brain injury and psychological trauma. Her work with amputee clients has increased her awareness of the gaps in meeting their needs, particularly in the area of peer support. As such, she has partnered with a Niagara-area amputee to establish a peer support gro...

Erez Avramov, nicknamed “The Man Who Refuses to Die”, is an internationally-recognized resiliency expert who’s been trained and shaped by life’s most challenging adversities. Three near-death experiences, and an elective amputation, have given him a unique perspective about life. Deeply driven to explore human potential, Erez has uncovered the inner workings of resiliency and is the founder of Lif...

Greg Westlake was the long-time captain of the Canadian Para Ice Hockey Team, a five-time Paralympian and three-time medalist. He’s worked as a CBC broadcaster and was the host of AMI’s Level Playing Field program, showcasing para-athlete stories. Westlake had both legs amputated below the knee when he was just 18 months old. Now a dad of two, a video production company owner, and a spokesperson f...

Unstoppable Tracy is about more than inspiration. She provides life-changing action-able results. She has a #1 Best Selling Book and is a Female Transformational Global Leader winner. She’s earned awards as an athlete, businesswoman and for her work in underdeveloped countries. She has spoken to audiences in over 40 countries and is Toronto’s most virally viewed speaker with over 30 million views...

Rob Larman lost his right leg above-the-knee when he was 14 after a friend dared him to jump on a slow-moving freight train. He ended up under the wheels. But not long after, he became one of the early graduates of The War Amps Child Amputee Program. Forty-plus years after his injury he’s still part of the “CHAMP” program, with 25 of those years as the Director of the Association’s PLAYSAFE/DRIVES...

Motivational speaker Michael Laughlin has brought his extraordinary story of trauma, loss, love, resilience, hope and triumph to readers with his new book “Untapped 60” to encourage others to face vulnerabilities and find strength in the face of adversity. Mike is a career firefighter with Kingston Fire & Rescue. He has faced unimaginable personal and professional challenges in his life, and d...

A nurse of 40+ years and an above-knee amputee of about seven, Kirsten Woodend has experienced healthcare from both sides - practitioner and patient - and shares the irony of how little she knew about amputation, let alone what a "prosthetist" is? She's an associate professor of nursing at Trent University and a two-time Dean of Trent’s School of Nursing. Today, Kirsten is the president of the Amp...

A talented hairstylist and a survivor of domestic violence, Larissa Camp found herself fleeing for her life when an ex-boyfriend shot her twice at close range with a shotgun. She suffered life-altering injuries, including the loss of four fingers on her right hand. But with strength and determination she’s found her purpose. She says, “I was given a story to share with the world in hopes of inspir...

Tom Williams started STAND (formerly Legs for Africa) after a trip to The Gambia more than a decade ago. It was there where he met a gentleman in need of a prosthetic limg, a leg lost to diabetes. Tom sourced one for him, and 10 years later his organization has rescued and recycled over 18,000 prosthetic legs for others in need across sub-Saharan Africa. Listen to his remarkable story of humanitar...

Courtney Gilmour is an award-winning stand-up comedian, television writer, and finalist on Canada’s Got Talent. She is one of Canada's most unique voices and sought-after comedy talents, named by NOW Magazine as “one of the top 10 stage artists to watch.” Courtney's victory at the 2017 Just For Laughs Homegrown competition was the first by a female comic in the 19-year-history of the event. Her fi...

“You don’t have to conquer the world; you just have to conquer your world,” says Andrew Haley. His is a story of a Halifax kid with a 35 percent chance of survival becoming one of Canada’s most accomplished high-performance athletes. Andrew shares what motivated him from his cancer diagnosis through the loss of a leg above the knee, and onward toward four Paralympic Games and five trips to the Par...

A musician, writer, broadcaster, Christa Couture is proudly Indigenous and queer and a lower extremity amputee since childhood. She loves to share stories that intersect with disability, and is now the host of Season 5 of the AMI travel docu-series “Postcards from...” featuring a different Canadian city each episode. Her career's work has explored experiences of loss, which include several unimagi...

A skydiver, surfer, rock-climber, snowboarder – Canada’s first Paralympic gold medalist in the sport in fact – a sailor and a contestant on The Amazing Race Canada reality show, the sky is not the limit for British Columbia’s Tyler Turner. The bilateral below-knee amputee, from a skydiving injury, lives by the motto: “It’s not about where you started or your end result. It’s the steps you take in...

Megan Williamson is the head fitness coach at Ocean Rehab and Fitness in Vancouver. She’s also the head instructor for the North American Council of Inclusive Fitness and co-author of a resource called Breaking Barriers: Fundamentals of Training Clients with Physical Disabilities. She’s all about bridging the gap between rehab and fitness, making exercise inclusive for everyone no matter what. Meg...

Alvin Law says “attitude” is so much more than an overused word, and shares his remarkable story on Life and Limb , thrive magazine’s podcast. It’s a story of life without arms that he’s told to over two million people on five continents at over 7,500 events. Abandoned by his birth family at just five days old, Alvin has spent his life doing things that he wasn’t supposed to do. That sounds rebell...

Prosthetics is an intriguing profession. It’s science. It’s art. And it’s social science in terms of relationships that are cultivated with patients or clients who, by way of life’s circumstance, may be hard to please at times. With over 35 years of experience with patient-prosthetist relationships, certified prosthetist Marty Robison provides some perspective on these "partnerships."

Jakob Kepka, a military veteran and amputee, is prepared for all of the risks associated with his upcoming "Hoperaising Expedition", a 900-kilometre bike ride from Krakow, Poland, to Kyiv, Ukraine, fearing Ukrainian drivers more than the Russians, he says. Jakob shares his personal motivation to pedal through the war-torn terrain as a beacon of hope for those with amputations, and similar physical...

Host Jeff Tiessen chats with Canadian Paralympian Kevin Rempel. Kevin fought for years to rebuild his physical and mental health. Not only did he learn to walk again after a motocross accident that resulted in an incomplete spinal cord injury, but he has walked across countless stages sharing his story and encouraging others. A member of Canada’s Paralympic Sledge Hockey Team, Kevin speaks candidl...