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Justin Roy Dupuy is an affable 26-year-old geological engineer whose right leg was amputated above the knee because of a rare cancer, sarcoma.

Following the surgical amputation in October, Roy Dupuy has been struggling to re-learn how to walk with a prosthetic leg paid for by the province’s medicare board, the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ).

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But the problem is that RAMQ has decided for financial reasons to defray the cost of only a basic artificial leg that is more suitable for a shut-in than a young man with potentially his whole life ahead of him, who loves the outdoors and whose job requires him to climb hills and descend valleys.

Adding insult to injury, Roy Dupuy discovered that if he hadn’t lost his leg to cancer, but in a car accident, the province’s automobile insurance board would generously cover the full cost of a state-of-the-art prosthetic leg that contains a computer-controlled knee. With such a prosthesis, known as the Ottobock Genium X3, Roy Dupuy would be able to swim again, to walk up and down hills and to crouch as he drills for environmental samples.