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Surfside double amputee Brad Rossiter is celebrating getting the top item on his wish-list – a new set of feet.
Mr Rossiter, a double donor organ recipient and former Eurobodalla Citizen of the Year, had a new set of high-quality prosthetic feet fitted on Monday, courtesy of a grant from Canberra Hospital.
“They are rippers; good as gold,” he said.
The feet were made from carbon fibre in Germany, and are worth $3000 each.
Their comfort and durability makes their price tag worth it.
“They say they are more flexible and I can feel it already,” he said.
The person he is most grateful for is Canberra clinician Richard Goward, who pleaded Brad’s case for the $6000 grant to the Canberra Hospital Prosthetics and Orthotics Department committee.
“They could have said no, so I am very grateful,” he said.
Mr Rossiter was quite taken aback when an article appeared in the Bay Post in May talking about how he would not have been able to finance the feet himself.
“People were offering to give me money to help pay for them,” he said.
“I told them ‘no, this is something I need to take care of’.
“I would really like to thank the community for their support and well-wishes.”
Mr Rossiter suffers from type one diabetes and received a donor kidney and pancreas seven years ago.
Up to that point he had been on kidney dialysis treatment for seven years.
His lower left leg was amputated in 2002 and his lower right leg in 2008.
He is a tireless campaigner for raising awareness for the importance of organ donation and kidney health and was named Eurobodalla Citizen of the Year in 2012.