Good Sports: PLATFORM TO EMBRACE PEOPLE
Mona Patel was a 17-year-old college student in California in 1990 when she was struck by a drunk driver. Her leg was crushed in the accident and eventually needed to be amputated.
After moving to San Antonio, she struggled to find a support group for amputees and decided to start one herself. Her nonprofit, San Antonio Amputee Foundation, helps amputees in a number of ways, giving them peer support, opportunities for education and recreation, and financial assistance to acquire prosthetic limbs and modify their homes.
Patel, a social worker with two master’s degrees, has now been helping fellow amputees for two decades. “It has become my platform professionally, philanthropically—just to embrace the people that come to me,” she told CNN. “And I hold their hand through as much as they need me to.”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? Please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]
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