Bernadette Hagans made the finals of the Miss Northern Ireland pageant, becoming the first person with a disability ever to compete in a Miss World qualifying contest. Hagans, who lost her right leg above the knee about three years ago to a rare cancer known as synovial sarcoma, hopes her achievement will promote acceptance and appreciation of atypical bodies. “I’m lucky that I get to use what’s happened to me to help people build their own body confidence,” she wrote on Instagram. “I can do this, then so can anyone else.”
At the qualifier, which is scheduled for September, Hagans will be wearing a tricked-out prosthesis that enables her to walk in heels. If she wins the crown there, she’ll head to Puerto Rico late this year to compete in Miss World.
Here’s what else is going on:
Ampt Biking, the mountain bike organization that’s featured in our current issue, drew some local news coverage for its first ride of the season at Rogue River, Oregon. Their next ride is scheduled for August in Estes Park, Colorado.
The LS Warriors, an all-amputee baseball team that competes against able-bodieds in the Men’s Adult Baseball League, won the Las Vegas Open Tournament, a championship-level event that draws elite teams from all over the country. The Warriors averaged nearly 10 runs a game and won four of five contests, including the clincher against the 2019 champs. Here’s more about the best amputee baseball team ever.
A French tattoo artist named JC Sheitan Tenet has made history (and the Guinness Book of World Records) by becoming the first user of a needle-equipped prosthetic arm. There’s video; click on through, it’s worth a minute of your time.
Check out the extraordinary moves of Venezuelan dancer Andreyna Hernandez, a hip disarticulation amputee who’s raising money on GoFundMe to buy a prosthesis.
An auto assembly-line worker in Michigan has filed a federal employment-discrimination suit, alleging that his company fired him because of his upper-limb amputation.
New Jersey congressman Donald Payne has reintroduced the Amputation Reduction and Compassion Act, which would provide Medicare and Medicaid patients with better coverage for peripheral artery disease screenings.
The latest entrant in the affordable, 3D-printed bionic arm category is India’s KalArm. Units are expected to begin shipping in September.