Charity gives amputees 'a leg up'

In 2002, lawyer Olivia Giles contracted meningcoccal septicaemia, a blood poisoning form of meningitis.

Her hands and lower legs had to be amputated to save her life.

After being fitted with artificial limbs, the 43-year-old founded 500 miles, a charity which helps to supply prosthetic limbs to developing countries like Malawi and Zambia. Here, she tells of her fundraising work.

Olivia with an assistant prosthetist and orthotist at the 500 miles Malawi clinic

When I was in Malawi in September 2008, from the passenger seat of a 4x4 I saw an amputee - a middle-aged man with one leg missing below the knee - literally crawling along in the gutter, like an animal.

He was filthy.

People were walking around him and stepping over him as if he was embarrassing, but commonplace.

As I sat in comfort, I was deeply struck by the hard fact that if you took away my two NHS prostheses and left me in Princes Street with no money, I would be no more able than he was to stand up - or to hold my head up.

My artificial legs give me human dignity, independence and hope.

And that's why, just a few months earlier, I had set up the 500 miles charity.

Second chance

I wanted to give people in Malawi and Zambia with no money, no dignity and no hope the same "leg up" that we would all take for granted - the same second chance that I got after I lost my limbs to meningococcal septicaemia.

The irony was that this man was only 10 minutes away from the new 500 miles prosthetics and orthotics centre at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe.

In Africa, less than 5% of people who need prosthetic limbs actually get them

I saw him just a couple of days before it was completed for 500 miles by Glasgow Building Services with funding from the city's Lord Provost.

Due to Malawian bureaucracy, the 500 miles centre didn't open until Easter 2009 but since then we have prescribed, manufactured and fitted an average of 30 prosthetic or orthotic devices each month.

In Zambia 500 miles supports two initiatives. One is the private prosthetic and orthotic workshop at the Zambia Italian Orthopaedic Hospital (ZIOH) in Lusaka.

The other is the flying surgical service called FlySpec which John Jellis, a British pilot/surgeon, has been running since 1982.

FlySpec takes orthopaedic and plastic surgery to remote locations all over Zambia, by air.

Difficult terrain

Since 500 miles became involved, using the technicians from the workshop at ZIOH FlySpec has also been delivering a prosthetic and orthotic service.

The charity part-funds all of FlySpec's work but also pays ZIOH for the devices the workshop produces, thereby helping to push it towards self-sustainability.

Because of the sheer size of Zambia, the difficult terrain and lack of infrastructure, without this airborne service, disabled people living outside the main towns would have little hope of accessing or affording these life transforming services.

Africa's Walk of Hope will be broadcast on BBC One Scotland at 1930 GMT on Monday 4 January.