The Good Life: Mia

Mia was born with a limb difference called proximal femoral focal deficiency (or PFFD). Her severe version of PFFD was so rare that the surgery Mia required wasn’t carried out in Australia. So her family travelled to America when Mia was just four years old for a life-changing operation that meant that she would be able to walk with a prosthetic leg.⁠

⁠Today Mia is an active daughter and sassy sister. She adores her family and her friends. Loves netball and swimming and visiting new places.⁠

⁠”We’ve never wanted to limit Mia,” her Mum Leila shares, “so we’ve always encouraged her to try everything, whether that means learning to do the same thing as someone else or learning to do it differently.⁠

⁠There are extra things we need to consider with Mia, like falling and stuff, but we don’t want to wrap her up in cotton wool and tell her she can’t because she can actually.⁠

⁠I want Mia to know that there is opportunity and possibility in everything that comes her way, even if she has to push a little harder to make others around her realise what she is capable of.⁠

⁠It wasn’t until I had Mia that I realised how much people with disability are put into a box of ‘you poor thing’ or ‘life must be so hard’ instead of just giving them that space and an opportunity to at least try.⁠

⁠I want Mia to grow up being strong, independent, and knowing that she’s capable and not defined by the limitations – because she isn’t.⁠

⁠I’m grateful for our support network around us, her medical team with advice, her friends, her coach, and our community. This is what being inclusive looks like.”⁠

(Images supplied by Leila Bright, mother of Mia)