{"id":7398,"date":"2019-03-14T12:27:52","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T01:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/?p=7398"},"modified":"2019-03-14T12:28:13","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T01:28:13","slug":"introducing-the-face-of-the-2019-good-friday-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/introducing-the-face-of-the-2019-good-friday-appeal\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing the face of the 2019 Good Friday Appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re proud to introduce four-year-old Ollie as the face of the 2019 Good Friday Appeal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Four-year-old had his leg amputated due to a rare genetic condition. Picture: Jay Town<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you saw little Ollie running around, you would think he was like any other four year old. He\u2019s charismatic, full of life and will go exploring at any opportunity he gets. But Ollie faces challenges every day after having the lower part of his leg amputated in 2016.<\/p>\n

Ollie was diagnosed with Fibular Hemimelia during gestation. The rare condition occurs once in every forty thousand births and Ollie was born with his right leg missing its fibular, an ankle structure that wasn\u2019t fully formed and only two toes. Despite facing adversity daily, Ollie\u2019s determination shone through and has never let a challenge stop him.\u00a0 He began crawling, pulling himself up and walking on his leg \u2013 just like any toddler would.<\/p>\n

The family began attending appointments at The Royal Children\u2019s Hospital to see the Limb Difference Clinic and a team of five specialists \u2013 a prosthetist, orthopaedic surgeon, physiotherapist, occupational therapist and social worker. They assessed when would be an appropriate time for an amputation.<\/p>\n

At only six weeks post-surgery Ollie, was fitted with his first prosthetic leg \u2013 and he hasn\u2019t looked back since.<\/p>\n

Watch his inspiring story below.<\/p>\n