How This Double Amputee Mother Is Finding Purpose Inspiring Others

How To Keep A Positive Attitude Despite Misfortune

Once in a while you come across a story that makes you say “wow.” This is one of them.

Dee Evans is a woman who has had both of her legs amputated. After you read her story, you may never say “I can’t” again…Dee rose up every time she fell down, literally. Here is her story…

After she contracted mono as a child in eighth grade, Evans developed an autoimmune disorder that affects her red blood cells–a disorder that has since devastated her health. One year after the illness, she had to have her spleen remove, and that left her susceptible to infections.

Ten years later she became very ill. Dee was given less than a 2% chance of surviving a severe infection, but managed to pull through . Then, ten years later, she was a married working mother taking care of a four-year-old daughter when the doctors told her they’d have to amputate both her legs.

Unfortunately, her husband didn’t stick with her through this difficult time, and she was left to take care of her daughter alone. Interviewed by FOX8 news in North Carolina….

“It’s not something you plan for when you’re thinking about the story of your life and how it’s going to unfold. And it’s not what the other people in your life imagined, either. So everybody has to figure out what’s best for themselves. I’m independent and stubborn, very stubborn,” she laughs. “I really think that was a good trait to have because it helped pull me through, along with what I call my ‘fr-amily.’ I couldn’t have done it without my friends and family. I even had my physical therapist throw me on the mats so I could learn how to get myself back up. You have to do the little things like that.”

Evans later met a man whom she calls the love of her life.

“We met at a 4th of July party. I was in my wheelchair. He wanted my phone number. We knew each other through friends, but really hadn’t known each other at all. I wasn’t ready to date at all. About six months later, at a Christmas party, he saw me again, bent down and kissed me. It never seemed to faze him that I didn’t have legs. He calls me his ‘hero;’ I really don’t know why,” Evans said.

Now working as a clinical researcher in the pharmacy department at the University of North Carolina and volunteering for local charitable groups in Alamance County, she shares her story to encourage others, saying…

“When life throws you a curve ball, you just hit at it. I can’t live my life in fear, but with intention. We’re all on a journey to find out what our purpose is.”

We think she’s found hers. Dee Evans is an inspiration because she persevered despite all the curveballs thrown at her, and there were many, but she  gains strength from each one of them.  To now be someone who helps others even though she has been through so much, is truly inspiring, don’t you think?

Here’s the video from Fox8…

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