Amy Purdy

Who is Amy Purdy?

Amy Purdy is an American actress, snowboarder, co-founder of Adaptive Action Sports and spokesperson for the Challenged Athletes Foundation.

At the age of 19, she contracted Neisseria meningitis, a form of bacterial meningitis. Due to the disease, which affected her circulatory system, both of her legs had to be amputated below the knee and her spleen had to be removed. Two years later, she received a kidney transplant from her father. Her friends now refer to her by the nickname Lucky.

Purdy began snowboarding seven months after she received her leg prosthetics. About a year after her legs were amputated, she came in third place in a snowboarding competition at Mammoth Mountain. Subsequently, she received a grant from the Challenged Athletes Foundation, a non-profit organization. Through this grant, she was able to compete in several snowboarding competitions in the U.S.

In 2003, Purdy was recruited by the CAF as spokesperson. She moved to San Diego to be closer to the CAF headquarters. In San Diego, she continued her pre-amputee profession as a massage therapist. She also got involved in the modeling and acting industry. In February 2003, she played a model in a Madonna music video. Later in 2003, Purdy started working for Freedom Innovations, a prosthetic feet manufacturer, as Amputee Advocate.