What do you do when faced with tragedy? You try to make something useful out of it. After losing her leg in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, Heather Abbott from Rhode Island was suddenly forced to adjust to a new life as an amputee – and the new challenges that come with it.

“I discovered that prosthetics are extremely expensive and really necessary to live life independently. Sometimes you’re even battling the insurance company to make them understand what you’re trying to get covered, even though you’re supposed to be covered under a particular health insurance plan.”

It didn’t take long for Heather’s foundation to pick up speed. Despite being solely run by volunteers, the foundation helps out dozens of amputees every year, with the amount of recipients depending on prosthetic prices and the foundation’s budget.

However, the need for affordable prosthetics has been growing non-stop in the last few years.

“We’ve gotten more applicants than ever before. Especially since Covid hit. I’m not sure if it’s because people lost their jobs early on, and they didn’t have health insurance anymore, or they had more time to research organizations that they could find assistance from. But for whatever reason, we want to help out as many as we can.”

With a growing amount of amputees needing all the help they can get, Heather and her team felt that they had to focus on a specific segment of amputees. In the spirit of why the foundation came to be in the first place, the choice fell on traumatic amputations.

“It’s really tricky because all circumstances are traumatic, but I think losing a limb in an instant with no warning, and having to adjust to that new normal right away, is something I can connect with.”

Although Heather Abbott Foundation is a small organization with just a volunteer staff, they’re very passionate about their work. Heather and her staff are working full-time, so her personal goal is to work less in her regular job and dedicate more time to her foundation.

“We all have full-time jobs, but we feel inspired to give back and help as many folks as we can. Even if we don’t reach that many because of the cost of prosthetics, the fact that we’re able to change some lives, it helps me make sense out of something senseless.”