Amputee needs help to get wheelchair motor

ROSE HILL, Manchester:

When he picks up his crutches to take a step, you may think he just got them and is trying to learn his way around their uses.

However, that is not the case as 76-year-old Winston Walker, who has been relying on the man-made metal legs for the last 15 years.

It’s the brutality of the ageing process that is working against him as he musters the strength daily to travel around and do what many would consider simple, like getting up after sitting.

“Something fell on my foot and bruised it, and then rat bite me on it and it became infected. It started swelling, and at that point, everything was unbearable, so they (doctors) had to cut it off.

Tried holding out

I really held out a little bit because I didn’t want to lose my foot, but I just had to decide me mind.”

Nicknamed ‘Chicken’ because of his love for and frequent consumption of the protein, the amputee said he has been living without one of his legs for the last 15 years and that it has been difficult ever since.

“I wasn’t working at the time I lost my leg. Before that, I was a mechanic in Cross Roads (Kingston). I used to have a little problem with pains in my leg some time ago, but when the thing dropped on it, that is when everything started to go down,” Walker told The Gleaner.

The father of two adult children, following the loss of his third son, Walker said he would love to have a better relationship with them.

He said he gets by on whatever his parents, who live in England, can send for him, but he understands that times are hard and people everywhere face difficulties.

Walker revealed that he has a wheelchair that would be able to take him around efficiently. However, it needs an engine/ motor.

“Sometimes people take me around, but they are not always available. I want some level of independence. I want to be able to go to the shop and get my little things and not have to trouble people to take me around all the time.”

Grateful

Walker spends his days being grateful in spite of his situation, reading the The STAR newspaper and doing the puzzles.

“Yes, that is my joy, I will get a puzzle book or I get a STAR, I have the papers stack up and sometimes I walk with the puzzle sheet if I’m going on the road and I feel like doing puzzle. But my greatest want right now is that motor for my wheelchair.”

To assist Winston Walker, call (876) 842- 7610.