Amputee’s walking mission needs help beyond Amanzimtoti
The team is looking for accommodation in Hibberdene on Monday night and Port Shepstone on Tuesday.
Imagine walking from Pretoria to Cape Town. Now imagine walking from Pretoria to Cape Town with a prosthetic leg. That’s the latest mission set by amputee Paul Steyn (31) to raise funds for other amputees.
“My right leg was amputated after an accident at school in February 2000 when I was 13-years-old. My leg was caught in the blades of a lawn mower being pulled behind a tractor,” he said. Doctors tried their best to save his leg but after gangrene set in after nearly six months in hospital, it was decided to amputate the leg below the knee.
“I made my own crutches until the age of 16, when someone gave me a prosthetic. A third party eventually paid me out for my accident but I realised how many amputees don’t have the money to buy limbs.”
He started the Paul Steyn Foundation, a non-profit organisation, in 2011 to raise funds to assist disadvantaged amputees with prosthetic limbs. His foundation also strives to be mouthpiece for amputees and to raise awareness about the plight of amputees in general and the cost of, and access to, prosthetic limbs in particular.
That is why he does his mammoth walks. Together with Mike Minnie (49), who has a left leg prosthetic, he left Pretoria on 26 June. They walked to Witbank, Nelspruit, Barberton, Ermelo, Piet Retief, Pongola and St Lucia before hitting Amanzimtoti on Thursday, 30 August. The plan is to make it to Cape Town on 24 November.
Unfortunately an abscess on his right leg which has been bothering him for the last four years has become unbearable, so Paul will stay over in Toti for a while to recover from an operation. Mike will continue on and it is hoped Paul will join him in about two months’ time, although if he has any say in the matter, his lay-off will be cut to a month.
Since 2012, Paul has raised enough money through his walking to donate 21 prosthetic limbs, which can cost between R30,000 and R100,000 each.
In 2012 Paul started with a mammoth 12,000km journey through all nine provinces from Cape Town to Durban, Bloemfontein, Nelspruit, Polokwane, Johannesburg, Potchefstroom, Springbok and back to Cape Town. He was joined by his brother Francois for a couple of thousand kilometres but for the rest of the journey, he walked on his own, pulling a 130kg cart and with no support vehicle.
Watch what the Paul Steyn Foundation is all about.
He met up with Mike when they walked up Sani Pass earlier this year. That walk will now become an annual event and all amputees are invited to join in next year’s event in June.
After hitting Durban, their first stop was to donate a limb to a needy amputee. “This walk has already funded limbs for a double-amputee in Pretoria, two in Middelburg, one in Nelspruit, a 15-year-old double amputee in Ermelo and one in Durban. The state has a seven-year backlog and we have 1,000 people on our database who need limbs.
READ ALSO: Jurie’s walk of faith brings him to Toti
It has been hard going. In the foundation’s first year we couldn’t raise enough money for one limb. In the second we managed one, two in the third and it has grown and grown from there. Our first stop in Toti was at Kingsway High, where we spoke to the pupils about our mission and how they can help us, and on Friday we will do the same at Kuswag Skool.”
Amputee runner Xolani Luvuno, who completed the 90km Comrades Marathon on crutches this year, was gifted his first prosthetic by the foundation.
Watch Paul Steyn being interviewed on the Expresso Show in 2016.
When Paul is not walking, he works as a photographer and videographer. He is also a part-time stuntman, and has appeared in various movies and television series for local and overseas production companies, where he was featured in scenes utilising his amputated leg.
On Saturday Mike and other local amputees will participate in the parkrun at Toti Main Beach, before Mike leaves for Umkomaas, hopefully with some locals for company. He will follow the coastline until the Wild Coast Sun and be driven through the Transkei where he will continue the walk from East London.
The team is looking for accommodation in Hibberdene on Monday night and Port Shepstone on Tuesday. Call Lourens Delport on 072-265-3241 if you can help or would like to tackle the Sani Pass adventure next year.
The team thanks Ollie’s Pub, Thirsty Whale and Lords and Legends for their sponsorships.
To learn more about the foundation or to get involved and donate, email info@nuelight.co.za, visit www.paulsteynfoundation.org.za, or SMS ‘walk’ to 38021 to donate R10. Banking details: Paul Steyn Foundation, FNB, account number: 62326196294, current account, branch code: 250655.
