Gabi Shull was diagnosed with bone cancer when she was just 9-years-old.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, doctors had to remove most of her leg in order to rid the Missouri youngster of the cancer and get her life back on track.
A keen dancer who was desperate to continue with her much-loved hobby, Gabi needed to keep her mobility.
Doctors suggested rotationplasty – a procedure which involves replacing the patient’s knee joint with their ankle joint.
They took out the knee area of Gabi’s leg, and with the lower part of her leg, rotated it 180 degrees and then attached it to her upper thigh, so that the ankle joint was at the same height as her other knee.
This allows Gabi to straighten and bend her leg by flexing and un-flexing her foot – giving her much more control over her limb than if she’d just been left with a stump.
And the results are clear – Gabi dances on stage like the ultimate professional, without any sign that she’s different from any other dancer.
Gabi is a spokesperson for the Truth 365 – an organisation working to increase funding and research into childhood cancer.
The organisation has produced an Emmy Award Winning documentary giving a “voice to all children fighting all forms of cancer.”
It exposes frightening statistics, the worst of all being that just 4% of America’s cancer research budget goes into research on child cancers (as of 2012).
Give Gabi’s inspiring video a watch and visit The Truth 365 for more.
