The reality is that this is easier said than done, but Jessica Quinn found a way to make lemonade out of life’s lemons, and she is now living life to the fullest.
Despite the ordeal she was forced to endure as a child and all the looks and hurtful comments she has endured over the years.
This soon-to-be mother of three, now 30 years old, was an active and sporty child when she was only eight years old.
But only until she tried to demonstrate her abilities by standing on a soccer ball, at which point she fell and broke her femur.
Jessica was in agonizing pain after a surgery and several more treatments, but the bone still wouldn’t mend after four months. She had osteosarcoma, a bone cancer that frequently arises in the cells that build bones, which caused doctors to run additional tests after they became perplexed.
As a result of Jessica’s initial treatment with intense chemotherapy, her weight dropped to a risky 18 kg.
“It was just the only way to really get rid of everything and save my life.” Jessica continues, “But there were a few things at play. Because I’d broken my leg, it was complicated by the risk of the cancer being spread. They had also tried to fix the leg by putting rods up my femur bone, so having a bone replacement or anything like that was just not really an option. The goal was simply to save my life.”
Doctors presented the family with two options.
One was “a full hip disarticulation,” that she describes as an amputation high in her hip socket.
“But that kind of gives you nothing to attach your prosthetic to, so you don’t have a knee joint, and I was a really active kid, and I was only a kid, so I wanted to live as normal a life as possible.”
The second option was a groundbreaking surgery and the first of that kind to ever be performed in New Zealand.
It was a rotationplasty, a procedure in which the center portion of the leg is cut off, turned 180 degrees, and then reattached to the thigh. As a result, her ankle acted as her knee joint and her calf as her thigh.
Jessica eventually figured out how to enjoy life to the fullest and came to terms with who she is. She acquired her confidence back and inspired countless people. Today, she has nearly a million TikTok followers and is an influencer, model, and athlete.
“I wanted to tackle this cookie cutter mould of the perfect body portrayed in the media. My dream was to see people like myself with real bodies represented,” she shared with the New Zealand Herald.
In a popular video she shared, Jessica answered the question, “Do you hide your insecurities?” “8-year-old me: hide your prosthetic leg so no one stares. 29-year-old me: no!” she captioned the video showing her puling down her shorts to hide her prosthetic at first and then proudly posing and showing it to the world to see.
Even more proudly, she competed on Dancing With the Stars and raised $55,000 for the Child Cancer Foundation of New Zealand.
“Walking is hard for me, let alone dancing. That was the furthest I’ve ever pushed myself outside my comfort zone.” She continued, “Seeing the effect my message has had on all these kids who ask me to have photos with them is an awesome feeling.”
Despite the fact that she motivates a lot of people, some still leave critical remarks.
Posting a video of her pregnant belly, she addressed the mean commenters who wrote “I would like to see which man was this level of brave plz” and “who the hell pregnanted her.”
Jessica responded, “I HONESTLY do not get down about comments like this. I truly am proud of the body I live in. I know everything I went through to get to this point and it’s all an incredible miracle in my eyes.” She continued, “I also love the community I have built, it’s only when my videos go viral and are shared with people who haven’t followed my story that these comments appear and that just shows we can’t judge a book by [its] cover.”
By writing sincere words, her supporters demonstrated their support for her. “The fact that these comments don’t phase you Jess make you even more of an inspiration to me,” and “I always think how lonely, sad, and unfulfilled these faceless internet trolls are to write such things,”
We wish Jessica never loses her positive attitude.
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