Willy Banda

Willy Banda is a regular patient at our Lilongwe centre. Now 16 years old, Willy was born with congenital malformation of his right leg. The femur (thigh bone) is short. In 2013, when he was 6 years old, Willy was first referred to 500 miles centre by MACOHA (a Malawian NGO which supports people with disabilities in Malawi) for an ortho-prosthesis. (An ortho-prosthesis is a combination of an orthosis to support the existing leg and a prosthesis to replace the missing length.) On 2nd September 2013, Willy received his first device. Since then, Willy has been fitted with four more devices from 500 miles. The last one of those was supplied in May 2020 [first photo below]. In between fittings we have repaired Willy’s devices many times and MACOHA has assisted him and his family by providing the transport which his family could not afford.

Willy was recently referred again to 500 miles by MACOHA for his sixth ortho- prosthesis because the last device was broken, too tight and basically worn out – a happy sign of heavy use! – but it is not so good that Willy came to our centre with the device in his hand and that he had been walking for a while without the device which was causing him pain in the hip and had also prevented him from walking long distances. Casting for a new ortho-prosthesis was carried out on the same day followed by fitting of the device. Willy immediately walked very well indeed with the new device as you can see in the video below, showing Willy walking with and without his new device. Willy was also provided with a new pair of shoes from our store because his family is very poor.

Willy and his mum were both very happy with the new device. Willy said that he could now walk without pain in his hip and that he was looking forward to being fully mobile again and to walking long distances.