Travis Ricks: "Losing my leg made me a better man"

Have you ever been through something so life changing that you honestly believed you were the only person in the world that it could be happening to? Did you feel like there was no possible way anyone could ever understand the physical and mental pain you were experiencing? Well, that was how I felt twenty-three years ago when my life was flipped upside down.

I was seventeen and in the prime of my athletic life. A senior in high school playing on the Varsity Football squad and a top ranked wrestler San Diego county looking to make a run at the California State Championships. I thought I had everything in front of me, but life had another plan. It was right then that I had been diagnosed with an aggressive stage four cancer in my knee and everything I knew was suddenly changed… I was now fighting for my life.

Fast forward several years later. I beat cancer, had my knee replacement and was beginning to thrive again. But just as suddenly as the cancer had come into my life, so did the next battle I was about to face. I spent two years fighting several aggressive forms of staph. I was now twenty-three years old and had almost died from cancer, been through sixteen major knee surgeries, three knee replacements and countless staph infections. I was at a crossroads in life. The only way I could see moving forward and getting back to a life outside of the hospital was to amputate. This was not an easy decision, but it was the only one that I was able to imagine in which would give me freedom from the situation I was in. On May 5, 2003 I began what I now call my new normal. I became an above the knee amputee.

At first it was not easy to come to terms with being disabled in a way that everyone would stare at or who would ask extremely personal questions about. In the beginning I was angry about the hand I was dealt in life. I couldn’t accept that I wasn’t the only one going through this experience and I felt alone. It wasn’t until I was introduced to the CAF and Össur community (more like a Family if you ask me) that I truly began to accept what had happened and I was able to be content with my disability. Although I still don’t see myself as disabled, I have come to terms with who I am as a person knowing that I am more than just my physical appearance (or lack thereof).

Sports was ultimately the thing that changed life around for me. I was always active as a kid and loved competing with my friends and peers. I wasn’t until I was showed a community of others who were active and thriving despite their disabilities that I began to see the positive changes in myself. All of this can be attributed to the first grant I received from the company I now work for, the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF). When I was in the hospital, I was told I would never run again, but thanks to the support of CAF and my very first grant for an Össur foot, I was able to prove those doctors wrong. Because of these two amazing organizations, I have been running for over seventeen years and I have no limits to what I can accomplish in my life. I will forever be grateful to them for the freedom I have and for the self-acceptance I have gained since becoming an amputee.

My name is Travis Ricks, I am an Össur Ambassador and the Director of Programs for the Challenged Athletes Foundation. If you are a new amputee or just new to being active and you want to experience the life changing power of running, please check out the CAF and Össur grant program at www.challengedathletes.org/ossur. I hope to see you out there living your #lifewithoutlimitations!