Still Standing: What I’ve learnt from a life lived differently

Jess Quinn is, in her own words, quite literally a walking miracle. Her body has been completely restructured so that she could survive an aggressive cancer.

Jess’s leg was amputated just before her ninth birthday, and she has had to adapt to living with a prosthetic leg. The challenges Jess has faced ever since have given her a unique outlook. Growing up, she felt alone in her difference, but she has learnt that the one thing people have in common is that we are all different.

She is on a mission to normalise ‘different’, speaking out on social media, creating diversity through her work as a model and helping people see we have a choice over how we respond to hardship.

This is a story of body acceptance, finding ways to live through life’s adversities, and perseverance.

Jess’s inspirational ‘you’ve got this’ attitude has seen her through every struggle she’s faced. Her philosophy embraces the fact that none of us gets to keep the body we were born in; we all bear scars that become part of our stories. She’s learnt to change the narrative and be grateful for what she can do, rather than focusing on the things she can’t.