CHAMPS Program Helps Local Girl Live Large

Jeff Green | Aug 08, 2013

Leah Neumann is a wiry, athletic, 9-year-old girl. She does just about everything she wants to do. Whether that means climbing trees, doing somersaults, riding a bike, swimming or kayaking on the lake.

She lives with her two sisters and parents, who run Brown’s Campground on Crow Lake. At the camp there are lots of opportunities for Leah to enjoy outdoor activities. She has to improvise sometimes because she lost her right arm just below the elbow when she was a baby as the result of a congenital condition.

In order to do everything she wants to do, Leah needs devices, and thanks to support from the War Amps CHAMP (Child Amputees Program), her parents Angie and Dana are able to get her whatever she needs.

“We just call Smith Prosthetics in Ottawa and they are generally able to figure something out. And the War Amps have always been there to cover the costs. From the time Leah was a baby until now, they have been there,” said Angie Neumann.

Leah has a prosthetic arm and hand, with electronic controls so she can control the hand, as well as an arm with attachments for gymnastics and other sports. She also has a bicycle arm that is attached to her bike frame, as well as a guitar pick attachment. She recently started kayaking, and after a long paddle found that her right shoulder was quite sore, so she will need something new to grip the paddle, and Smith’s is working on something.

“Do you want to see how my biking arm works?” she said when visited earlier this week at the Brown’s camp. She then jumped on her bike and pedaled down the yard to the edge of the water, turning just as the ground began to slope and then pedaled hard up the hill, a smile on her face, her arm steady on the handle bars.

As she grows, she needs new equipment frequently.

“There is no way we can cover all of this,” said Angie, “everything is custom made and custom fit for Leah each time.”

Earlier in July, Leah went with her parents to the semi-annual CHAMPS seminar, which brings her together with other children who are missing limbs. For Leah the camaraderie is important, and she also gets to hang out with her friend Olivia from Merrickville, whom she has known since before she can remember.

For her parents the first one or two CHAMPS seminars they attended with Leah were perhaps even more important.

“It helped us to talk to other parents. We did not really know what we were dealing with at first but with all the information that was available and the support from everyone it was a help to us.”

The Amputees in Action session is a feature of every seminar. It is an opportunity for children to demonstrate their athletic skills and the devices that help them improve those skills. This year Leah took part in the seminar by doing some tumbling using her gymnastics ‘shroom attachment on her utility arm. Next time around she might be showing her kayaking claw.

This fall Leah will be switching schools from Loughborough Public School, where she has been attending since she was in Kindergarten, to Sharbot Lake. She will be in grade 4, starting in the old Sharbot Lake Public School site, but she is looking forward to attending at Granite Ridge when the new school is completed.

The War Amps CHAMP is funded solely through public support of the War Amps Key Tag and Address Label Service.

“It is good for people who support the Key Tags to know that there are kids in their own community who are helped out by the program” said Angie Neumann.