It was hard to miss 33-year-old model and writer Abena Christine Jon’el’s appearance at a recent major fashion show in Ghana. Walking the runway with her prosthetic leg wrapped in a colourful African print her appearance made a big impact. The Ghanaian-American was hoping to make a statement about the visibility of people with disabilities, building on years of work in the US and here in Ghana of speaking out on the issue.
At two years old, Abena’s life became defined by a challenge most adults would struggle to face. A large tumour had appeared on her right calf, the first sign of a rare, aggressive soft-tissue cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma. Doctors presented her mother with a difficult choice: radiation, which could have left her dependent on a wheelchair, or amputation.
Her mother chose the latter. “It was the best decision she could have made,” Abena says today without hesitation, speaking to the BBC surrounded by friends and family at a restaurant in the Ghanaian capital, Accra. She now lives in Ghana, but she grew up in Chicago in the US.
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Even before she understood what cancer was, her early life was shaped by treatment and recovery. Movement became a way of measuring survival and rebuilding confidence. In a way, it was taking ownership of a body that had been through so much. But when she speaks about her younger years, it is not the cliché story of the inspirational disabled child sometimes presented in glossy campaigns: a compliant person bravely but silently triumphing against adversity.
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