PEOPLE: Olivia's Mission to help amputees stand tall

TEN years had gone by since the young man with the dazzling smile was last able to raise himself up. Yet now here he was, although a bit wobbly, standing tall.

He'd travelled 8km over dusty dry roads, dodging potholes and rocks in his battered wheelchair to get there. He was 34 years old and since the road accident a decade earlier tore both his legs off at mid-thigh, he'd married, become a father and dreamed of this day when he might just possibly stand straight again.

Olivia Giles watched the joy spread over his face as the new artificial limbs which were about to change his life in the most dramatic manner imaginable, were finally fitted.

"The look on his face was amazing," she recalls. "To see him standing up for the first time in ten years and to think that it had only cost us a small amount of money to do it, was incredible."

If anyone could empathise with how he was feeling, it was her. In February 2002, she left her job as a senior partner at a city solicitors' firm early, feeling like she was coming down with the flu.

In fact, she had life-threatening meningococcal septicaemia.

She woke in hospital a month later to discover both lower arms and her legs below the knee had been amputated in a desperate measure to save her life.

Seven years on, and thousands of miles and a gulf of differences separate her from David in his simple Zambian home. But just like him, she too walks tall on artificial limbs. And both know that without them, their lives would be so much harder.

"I remember myself standing up for the first time," she explains.

"I had been lying down for six months and finally there was this feeling of being upright and people at last seeing what height you are. The difference this piece of metal and plastic can make is the same for him and me: it's the difference of whether you have a life or not.

"It's the difference in getting from A to B by yourself, of having the independence of being able to stand up.

"That's such a 'human' thing, to be able to stand up and look someone in the eye."

Olivia is a striking blonde with a generous smile and razor sharp lawyer's mind which she has turned to helping Africa's neglected amputees like David through three projects - two in Zambia, one in Malawi - run by her Edinburgh-based charity, 500 Miles. Yet determined and persuasive as she is, even she is slightly ruffled by her latest and ambitious fundraising drive, Miles for Smiles.

In a fortnight's time, hundreds of walkers will set off a minute apart for a one-mile walk around the city's Festival Square area. The event is timed to last exactly 500 minutes and her dream is that every minute slot can be filled, so by the end of the day walkers will have covered the 500 miles - a reflection of her charity's name.

"I want it to be fantastic, but right now I'm just hoping people actually turn up. How many miles do you think I can ask my mum to do?" the 43-year-old laughs.

She may be worrying unnecessarily. For she's already signed up familiar faces like The Proclaimers - whose most famous song inspired her charity's name - along with television hosts, sports stars, entertainers and a string of others who have promised to be there on the day.

Like most that she meets, they've been hooked by her passionate explanation of the life-changing impact her charity can bring to lives dealt the double blow of crushing poverty and the misery of disability.

It's not easy to say no to someone as driven as Olivia Giles.

She had already helped front a successful meningitis awareness campaign when she decided to concentrate her efforts on an area that reflected more of her life now.

"My feeling was that amputees and disabled people with mobility difficulties are pretty well served in this country," she explains.

"I was aware that if I lived in another country, then it would not be quite like that."

Olivia, who uses artificial limbs to walk, arrived in Blantyre, Malawi, in January last year, to see its sole orthopaedic workshop and assess how she could help. The experience left her reeling.

"I was a total novice," she reflects. "Nothing prepares you for being there.

"There are so many demands, serious things like HIV, malnutrition, infant mortality," she explains.

"Rehabilitation for amputees is a really low priority."

The workshop survived on just GBP 1,800 a year and was producing only 200-250 devices for a nation with around 60,000 amputees.

"And the level of corruption was blatant and appalling," she adds.

Worse was the sight of pitifully poor people whose lives could be dramatically improved for an investment of just GBP 60, enough to buy them an artificial limb or support.

"You cannot have a life in a wheelchair over there," she says quietly.

"You can't join in socially if you can't walk. The quality of life is so low. Being able to move about is life-transforming."

She returned home depressed and unsure of where to start until a chance meeting with a charity worker from Glasgow with links to Malawi. They offered to provide old seagoing containers to create an orthopaedic workshop at the capital of Lilongwe. It opened, finally, at Easter after long negotiations with the Malawi government over how she could fund its future.

In its first week alone it made 65 devices and helped 43 patients. Soon people were travelling miles, dragging themselves along potted roads to get a life-changing artificial limb.

With the Malawi workshop spinning along, Olivia headed to neighbouring Zambia to strike a deal to fund staff training and boost output at an existing prosthetics workshop.

There she stumbled across an air medical service delivering vital orthopaedic help to isolated areas of the country which had just lost its sole source of funding.

Supporting FlySpec is now a vital area of her charity's work. Raising the funds - her charity relies totally on donations - is a challenge. But it's one that Olivia found she couldn't ignore.

She speaks movingly of a 16-year-old boy who she watched one day as he played football near to the Malawi workshop.

"He had trouble written all over his face," she laughs. "He was boisterous, he was having a great time. It was a surprise when I later found out that he had two below-the-knee prosthetic limbs that we had provided.

"It was fantastic to see the second chance at life these limbs had given him. Two pieces of metal, some plastic. That's all it is, a cheap fix that changes lives."

She adds: "I feel a sense of obligation that this is there to be done. If I don't do it, how do I live with myself? I've seen the need. If I don't do it how do I sleep at night?" she shrugs.

"Some things have your name on it."

A MILE IN YOUR SHOES

MILES for Smiles takes place on 3 October, when walkers will set off a minute apart between 11:20am and 7:30pm, covering a mile course around Festival Square.

It's hoped that each time slot can be filled - walkers must register beforehand - making a total of 500 miles walked.

Walkers can share their mile with friends and family, walk together in groups or even do their mile over and over again.

They'll be accompanied by music from bands, pipers and entertainers - and might even find themselves following in the footsteps of some celebrity faces.

To add to the fun, walkers are encouraged to complete their mile in unusual ways - in fancy dress, dancing the route, or in any quirky way they fancy.

There's no need to raise sponsorship to enter, but anything made will go to help projects run by 500 Miles.

Registration is easy and free. Simply go to www.milesfor smiles09.co.uk, e-mail your details to trish@500miles.co.uk or write to 500 miles, Box 500, 44-46 Morningside Road, Edinburgh EH10 4BF.

You can support the event by donating online at: www.justgiving.com/fivehundredmiles


Edinburgh Evening News September 18, 2009