Olivia Giles in hospital, shortly after losing her limbs, and pictured nearly eight years later at her home in Edinburgh

On "a very ordinary Thursday" in February 2002, Olivia Giles' life changed forever. The lawyer from Edinburgh was so busy that she tried to block out the fact that she did not feel well. "But I just remember becoming more and more conscious of my very cold hands and feet," she said. Olivia Giles goes to Malawi "And eventually, not being able to concentrate on what was in front of me." Within 24 hours, Olivia was unconscious and in intensive care. She had contracted meningococcal septicaemia, a blood poisoning form of meningitis. "I went into a coma and remained in a coma for four weeks while the medics fought to keep me alive," she said. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. "And during that time my lower legs and lower arms had to be amputated in order to keep me alive." The 43-year-old said she realised gradually that her limbs had been amputated, and went from living life at break-neck speed to taking one day at a time. "What I did to allow myself to cope was to shut everything down to the four white walls around me and the single day ahead of me," she said. Olivia was given artificial legs three months after the amputation, and had a eureka moment during her physiotherapy. She said: "One day, out in the corridor, I just thought 'wait a minute, I think I can do this'. "I got a little run of steps on my own and I suddenly knew it was going to be all right. "I knew that I was going to have a life, be independent, walk out of that place and leave it all behind." 'Some kind of curse' Olivia did leave it all behind, and turned her life in a different direction by setting up a charity called 500 miles to help fellow amputees in Africa. The continent is home to an estimated 60 million disabled people who are often marginalised because of a perception that disability is some kind of curse or witchcraft. "I discovered that if people, particularly in Malawi and Zambia, lose a limb or use of a limb, their enjoyable quality of life is over if they don't die," she said. "It was just so compelling. A life with a makeshift wooden peg has finally come to an end "There is a need for prosthetics and orthotics all over Africa, but I chose Malawi because of its existing links with Scotland." Olivia threw herself into fundraising for the charity, and in co-operation with the Malawian Ministry of Health, officially opened the doors of a new orthopaedic clinic in the capital Lilongwe in March. She said: "It feels unreal that this 500 miles clinic is operating already when I was first ever in Lilongwe in January 2008. "In the grand scheme of things it's happened incredibly fast." Olivia has now extended her mission to Zambia, a country which has double the population of Scotland and where just under half of all households have a disabled family member. "I noticed on the way from the airstrip, we passed lots of little groups of children playing by the roadside," she said. "I waved out a couple of them and basically they recoiled in horror at my no hands." Olivia enlisted the help of orthopaedic surgeon and pilot John Jellis She enlisted the help of her friend, Professor John Jellis, an orthopaedic surgeon and pilot, to try to increase the number of artificial limbs available to people in rural areas of Zambia. Her charity funds a workshop in the grounds of Mukinge hospital which makes prosthetics, and Prof Jellis - who founded the project Flyspec - flies to the most remote areas to fit them. He operated on about 1,000 patients last year. When they arrive at the hospital there is already a queue of people, some have been waiting for days. She watches as one elderly man, who has endured the pain of a peg leg for years, is finally fitted with a prosthetic and tentatively takes his first steps. "I've been talking about these limbs being made and delivered remotely for such a long time that it has to be exciting to see it actually happening," she said. Africa's Walk of Hope will be broadcast on BBC One Scotland at 1930 GMT on Monday 4 January.



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