The character arc of Amy Purdy
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 7 November 1979 in Las Vegas. Between then and now sit bacterial meningitis at nineteen, septic shock, a two percent chance of survival, the amputation of both legs below the knee and the loss of both kidneys, hearing in one ear and her spleen, a kidney transplant from her father two years later, a snowboard picked up seven months after her prosthetic legs arrived, third place in a competition within a year, a non-profit she co-founded, a Paralympic bronze in 2014 and a silver in 2018. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Amy Purdy?
Two percent. Seven months later she was on a board.
She was born in Las Vegas and was nineteen, working as a massage therapist, when she contracted a form of bacterial meningitis. The infection led to septic shock and went through her circulatory system. Doctors gave her a two percent chance of survival.
What it cost her, in the record's own list: both legs amputated below the knee, both kidneys, the hearing in her left ear, and her spleen. Two years later her father gave her one of his kidneys.
Seven months after she received her prosthetic legs she went snowboarding. About a year after the amputations she finished third in a competition at Mammoth Mountain. A foundation for challenged athletes gave her a grant, which let her compete across the United States, and in 2003 that same foundation made her its spokesperson and she moved to San Diego to be near it. She went back to the work she had done before the amputations, as a massage therapist, and started modelling and acting alongside it. She appeared in a Madonna video in February 2003 and began working for a manufacturer of prosthetic feet as its amputee advocate.
Then she built the thing that outlasts a career. She co-founded Adaptive Action Sports, a non-profit for people with physical disabilities who want to get into snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, art or music. It is a chapter of a national disabled sports organisation, and it exists because she had to work out the equipment and the routes in herself.
She took bronze at the 2014 Paralympics and silver at the 2018 Games. She made her film debut in 2005, has modelled and acted, designed fashion, written a book and become a sought after speaker.
The moments
Amy Purdy's timeline.
The 1990s
A two percent chance
Setback, and it changed everything. Nineteen years old, and two percent.
Both legs, both kidneys
Setback, and it changed everything. Both legs below the knee, both kidneys, one ear, her spleen.
The 2000s
Learn to walk, or learn to ride
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: get on the board, taken, or rehabilitate first. She placed third within a year and went on to two Paralympic medals.
Seven months to a board
Milestone, and it changed everything. Seven months after the legs arrived, she got on a snowboard.
Third at Mammoth
Milestone, and it changed everything. A year after the amputations, third in a competition.
Her father gives a kidney
Milestone, and it changed everything. Her father gave her one of his kidneys.
A grant, and a season
Milestone, and it changed her direction. One grant, and suddenly she could travel to race.
San Diego, and the work
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Back to the job she had at nineteen, and four new ones alongside it.
Adaptive Action Sports
Milestone, and it changed everything. She built the organisation that did not exist when she needed it.
A film debut
Milestone. An acting debut, six years after the two percent.
The 2010s
Paralympic bronze
Milestone, and it changed everything. A Paralympic medal, fifteen years after they took her legs.
And then silver
Milestone, and it changed everything. Four years later, and a better colour.
The organisation she co-founded is still putting people with new prosthetics onto boards for the first time. What she set moving is the equipment, the routes and the coaching that nobody had worked out when she needed them, built by somebody who had to invent all of it for herself at twenty.
Your turn
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Sources
- Amy Purdy, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Paralympic records for the 2014 bronze and 2018 silver.
- Adaptive Action Sports and Challenged Athletes Foundation records.