He lost his leg three years ago, now Darren Ross is wanting other amputees to know that there's support in our community.

The Amputee Society of Waikato and Bay of Plenty Districts is a non-profit organisation seeking to promote the welfare of amputees through advocacy, peer support and social events.

Darren, who is now vice president, joined the society in 2020 after he had an amputation. 'I lost my leg through an infection I got in my body,” says Darren. 'When you go into hospital and have a leg cut off or have an amputation there's no support really there for you…you're just let back out into the world, and then people are like: ‘Where do I start? What can I do? Is there support out there for me because I'm feeling really emotional about this?'

'People that have just had amputations or amputees – they're a bit funny about interacting with other people again for a bit. It's just like you go through a shutdown period. I did as well, but we're trying to get more people in our society again, and more awareness for amputees as well because there's not much awareness out there.”

Darren says amputees are not often thought of in the community. For example, Darren shares a story of when he parked in a mobility space at Fraser Cove Shopping Centre.

'This guy came up to me and he goes: ‘You can't park there' and I said: ‘I've got a disabled sticker' and he said: ‘What's disabled about you?' So I had to get out of the car and show him I have no leg – and it happens more often than you actually think.”

Experiences such as this cause a lot of amputees to get to a point where they don't want to go out, says Darren. Yet, the local Amputee Society wants to change this. 'We're trying to get people to come out more, to realise that life still goes on and that just because you've lost a limb doesn't mean your life's finished. It just means it starts another journey.

'We try to do fun events…we've got a 4X4 trip coming up in Taupō, we've got golfing days, bike days, all sorts of stuff!”

The Amputee Society of Waikato and Bay of Plenty Districts also partners with Good Neighbour to support amputees by way of meals. 'Good Neighbour are the most wonderful and caring people. 'Every fortnight we go down and pick up a pile of food in the truck and the girls bag it all up and then it gets picked up or delivered to people that are struggling.”

To get connected with our local amputee society, visit: https://www.facebook.com/ampswbop/