“But once people have adjusted to a life as an amputee, life continues as normal.”

Fay Keegan from Pampoolah is speaking from personal experience.

In 1968, at the age of 11, she fell from a moving train and her foot was crushed. She had ongoing issues throughout her life but it was an unrelenting infection in 2011 that saw her make the the decision to amputate one of her lower legs.

The surgery took place in January 2012 and she hasn’t looked back, saying she feels much freer now than what she did while she still had her foot.

“It wasn’t a hidden disability but it appeared like I was completely normal. The fact is, I was more disabled with my foot than without it.”

She said modern prosthetics and their cosmetic covers mean people don’t really know if you are an amputee or not.

“A lot of people ask ‘do I wish I’d done it sooner’. I don’t. I think I did it at the right time,” she said.

“When it came to it I was ready. For a long time I was looking for permission to cut it off. I knew the foot was passed its use-by date. The infection gave me the permission to do it.

“I’ve never had a reason to amputate it before that. At that stage I absolutely knew it was the right thing to do.

“I sometimes wonder why did they save it originally but I wouldn’t have been ready then. I don’t know how I would have coped – and you can’t change the past.

“Saving it was what I really want them to do anyway.”

Fay was invited to speak about her life and experience at Quota International of Taree’s International Women’s Day dinner, the theme of which was ‘Be Bold for Change’.

“I was excited and really honoured...the day is a really significant one for women. It’s important to celebrate how far we’ve come but sad that we have haven’t come further.”

The feedback was extremely positive and she said she also had many questions, the most common about whether she experiences phantom pain, which she said she is fortunate not to. “It’s a severe real pain.”

She was also commended on how frank, open and candid she was.

“I’m always surprised by that response. Because I’ve been a social worker its usual for me to speak in these ways and talk genuinely and not present a veneer.

“I guess the process about what happened surrounding the amputation has also given me the freedom to talk about my experience.”

She said amputation can feel like a taboo subject.

“Socially it’s not something you talk about...it’s part of our cultural inheritance to get on with things and be stoic about your condition.”

Fay has also used her experience to help others going through the experience of amputation.

Over the past year she has been the  national manager of the Life for Limbs peer support program and is now a peer support volunteer with the organisation.