This past October, my daughter, Hannah was invited to the Challenged Athletes Foundation's (CAF) San Diego Triathlon.  This was an incredible experience for Hannah where she met other amputee children, attended a gait training session which taught her how to run correctly with prosthesis and exposed her to adult women amputees who have become mentors to her.  During the weekend in San Diego, CAF surprised Hannah with a special running prosthesis.  This prosthesis has allowed Hannah to become a more stable runner which has been a great source of confidence for her as she is now able to keep up with her peers, and in fact, helped her complete a 5K this past December!

During the event when Hannah received the running leg, her "story" was told to a crowd of over 500 people.  Two women, Melissa Stockwell and Patty Collins were inspired by Hannah receiving this running leg and decided to raise money for CAF where the funds will go towards prosthesis for girls. The costs for these running legs can amount to over $20,000.00 of which insurance companies will not pay for.  Melissa and Patty have formed a team and will compete in the Aflac Irongirl Triathlon in Las Vegas in May. Proceeds raised will go to CAF for prosthesis for girls.  You can imagine our surprise when we received a call from CAF inviting Hannah and Ashley to attend this event with the purpose of recognizing Hannah as their inspiration to raise money to benefit little girls.  Both Melissa and Patty are veterans of the war in Iraq and are both amputees.  This past summer Melissa won a gold medal in swimming in the Beijing Paralympics. Thanks for all the work that CAF has done for folks like my daughter.