She was hit by TWO tubes! Now she's 80% human, 20% bionic. Sarah De Lagarde on Tilly Talks Tech

TRIGGER WARNING: Please note this podcast delves into Sarah's trauma and features potentially sensitive content of how she lost her limbs.  

Imagine a normal day at work and then one sliding door moment changing your life forever. Sarah De Lagarde exposes her entire journey, from surviving being hit by not ONE, but TWO tubes and becoming 80% human, 20% bionic. 

Sarah you are a freaking legend thank you so much for chatting with me and being so raw. Happy Limb Difference Awareness Month folks!!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Imagine going about a regular day in London, then on your commute home, losing your limbs in a matter of seconds. She was struck by a London underground tube, not once, but twice, and then somehow came back even stronger using some of the most advanced bionic technology in the world. Today's guest didn't just survive. She rebuilt her life in a way that's redefining what humans and technology can do together. Meanwhile, bringing attention to some very important issues. It's Limb Difference Awareness Month, and Sarah Delegarde is a force to be reckoned with. Hey everyone, welcome back to Tilly Talks Tech. My name is Tilly, I am your host. And on this podcast, we talk about the technology that is changing the way we live and individual people's lives as well. We're all about expanding human potential, and the woman I'm about to have on this podcast, she is a survivor, and her joy and drive towards life, the resilience that she encapsulates since her accident and before it is just truly remarkable. Despite what happened, she truly is like a bundle of joy, and she's gone on to accomplish so many incredible things. An incredible example in the Lim Difference community. Today I'm gonna be learning all about her story, her adjustment to wearing prosthetics when that's not something she's ever had to think about before, and her journey traveling the world, talking about super important topics like how prosthetics aren't necessarily designed for women. Please welcome to the podcast, The Incredible Sarah Delegarde. Hello, Sarah. Welcome to Today Talks Tech. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for taking the time to sit down with me. You know, I've been wanting to get you on the podcast since you came to HQ. I was like, we have to make this happen. How are you feeling?

SPEAKER_02 1:33

I'm good, honestly. Um it's true that it's been quite a while since we saw each other at uh at Open Bionics, and I came all the way to Bristol for the first time. Love the city, by the way. So cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Come back, girl. Come back. We'll get you on. I must say, I have quite a big question for you to start off with because you have an incredible story. You've rebuilt your life in a way that most people can't even imagine. And I was wondering if there was like a certain belief about yourself that had to like completely change for that to happen. Like, what's your motto in life, maybe before your accident and after it now, to like be as audacious and amazing as you are?

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Oh well, thank you. Um, I don't know. I you know, I I've had like friends and family and colleagues commenting that actually before um I lost my limbs, that I already was somebody who tended to see solutions rather than just problems, and that I had that certain optimism that I still have today. But the the motto that I used to have before my life before my life changed that radically was nothing is impossible. And uh and weirdly, that is you know, even more appropriate um after I uh lost my my limbs in in the accident. I don't know, it's I still have that same level of optimism, but it's it's slightly different now. It's more it's more quiet, it's more of an inner confidence and saying I trust my body a lot more than I used to, because I that night I should have died at least 10 times. The survival rates in an accident like mine are like less than 10%, and so it gave me a whole new confidence in my own body. Like I didn't know I was that strong to survive that.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Yeah, that's crazy. Like you're so right. I mean, it is such a crazy thing to happen. And the fact that like that was your motto before this even happened to you, I feel like speaks volumes. It's almost like you were like affirming that to yourself, and like on that night, like that kicked in, and it was like, okay, this is like the proof now that truly you like you can survive the impossible and you can come at the other end of it. And I just find that so amazing, and the way that that's carried through before your accident to after, but you seem to have like always had that like real mental strength, and then obviously, like your body survived the impossible, which I think just reaffirms that physically as well. I was wondering if you could talk me through that day of your accident because it was just like a normal day in London, right? Like this could happen to anybody, which I think is the craziest thing.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

I know, and so I mean, I generally talk about the contrast because one month before the accident happened, my husband and I we went to Tanzania and we climbed Kilimanjaro, right? So that was the biggest feat I'd ever done before. I'm not particularly sporty as a person, you know. I am happy if I go to the to the gym every six months once to not lose my membership, you know. But but that was that was for me the biggest win to be able to climb that high. You know, it was eight days sleeping in a tent on the side of a mountain, um, there's 50% less oxygen at the top. It was pretty tough. And my husband, you've met him, right? He's like this tall guy, six foot four, you know, full of muscles. And he was like so confident that he would be able to, you know, saunter up this mountain. And lo and behold, he wasn't the one who managed to get up there without any issues. I was the one that was feeling fine. He had like altitude sickness and hyperfermia and all of that happening. And so standing on top of that mountain as the sun rose, I was so uh excited because I expected to be the liability. I expected the one that they would have to call the helicopter to take down, you know, like and I made it, and so I was so uh so excited. I remember thinking like this, I feel invincible. And then reality check one month later, we're back in London, I'm back at work, and I remember that night, it was Friday evening, I was working a little bit later than usual, and uh, and you know how you have that sliding drawer moment where you're like, it's raining, maybe I should take a cab instead of taking public transport to go home. And uh, and because it was raining, no cab came, and so I thought, oh, I'm gonna take the tube. And that is that sliding drawer moment that changed my life, right? And so I slipped on a wet and uneven platform and fell through the gap. And there was a stationary train there, and there was a platform, and I fell through the gap. So you have to imagine the gap was larger than my shoulders because I fell through it, and um and nobody saw me fall. Uh, the train departed and crushed my right arm above the elbow, and I by some miracle was still conscious, so I was trying to draw attention to myself, screaming for help, but no help came. And uh and I remember losing my phone in the full, and I could see it in the darkness. So this was uh uh an outside station, so it was raining, it was dark, and um, and I remember like retrieving it and trying to call for help, and the phone wouldn't recognize my profile because I didn't know that at the time I'd broken my nose and I'd sustained it on my on my chin, and so my whole face was unrecognizable. I then tried to type in my my my code with my with my left hand, but because the phone was wet, because my fingers were wet, it didn't work. Then I lost battery on the phone, and so I mean it was just you know Wow, warming up very unfortunate. But but I was determined not to let go because I had this strange vision of the faces of my two daughters, you've met them as well, right? Um they um they popped up in my mind's eye, and I heard their voices so clear in my head where they said, Mom, what are you doing? You need to come home, we need you. And that's where uh the survival instinct uh moves from wanting to protect your own life to making sure that you protect your your children, and so I thought, yes, I need to survive this, and um somehow found found this incredible superhuman strength that I didn't think uh we had, you know, it's called um uh hysterical strength. Actually, I found that out afterwards, and then I thought things couldn't get any worse, but then the second train came into the station and I was unable to escape it, and 22 tons of steel crushed my right leg loaded.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

It's crazy, and I still to this day am not sure like how I didn't lose consciousness or die of a heart attack at that moment, but somehow still hanging in there and screaming, screaming for help. I screamed to her all over and over again, somebody please help me. My name is Sarah, I don't want to die. And eventually somebody did notice and did uh call raise the alarm and call for help.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Thank God, Jesus. Like the fact that you're down there like once and then it's like twice. I go, I mean, nobody can imagine that. It's insane. I can't imagine what it must be like to like be down there, and then you know, you think you survived the first one, and then you start seeing the second. What was it? Hysterical strength that you said when that kicks in. I genuinely feel like because it's obviously just a mix of like determination, adrenaline, and I feel like that is like the closest thing we get to like magic, superhuman strength. It's insane, and it's like it's almost spiritual the fact that you're like you just see your children and you just switch it on and you figure it out. I feel like that like maternal, like mother instinct is such an incredibly beautiful thing. It's the same thing I feel like saves saving my life when I was a baby because like I had meningitis when I was 15 months old. I was sent home, diagnosed with an ear infection. And you know, you trust the professionals, but it was my mom who was like, something's not right here, and she just would not give it up. So I do think there's just something spiritual and incredible about a mother's gut instinct and the urge to just go and like make sure they're there for their children. Do you know what I mean? Because it's beyond you at that moment. You think you would be a bit selfish, you know, you're stuck like with these tubes coming past, but all you're thinking about is the people you want to get home for and be there for, like the drive and where that comes from, being so pure, like just says so much about you as a human. And I saw you put on a gorgeous post about London Air Ambulance who pulled you out and like looked after you the other day for Limb Difference Awareness Month. And you were talking about how you feel like sometimes if like you didn't actually survive and you're living in some kind of like surreal afterlife. And I was wondering if you could elaborate on that a little bit more.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

It's it's it's true. Sometimes I have that when particularly when something extraordinary happens that I never thought I would be meeting these types of people or going to these types of places. Yeah, and I sometimes sit there and think, wow, this is so surreal. Like sure, am I still alive, or is this just a weird form of the afterlife where I am actually dead and this is all happening around me? And I say this jokingly, I know it sounds a bit morbid, but I say this jokingly, and it happens when you know I I meet some some celebrity at some event and they are chasing me for a selfie with them, and I'm kind of like, what? But so this is so surreal, but also I I think I'm quite conscious about the like how close I was to not making it as well, right? And that that stays with you for probably I hope forever, because it also um reminds me to appreciate every moment that I have, you know, the the the the the common uh comment that people have is that well, I don't know how you can be so smiley, how can you be so uh positive? If that would have happened to me, I'm not sure I would want to continue, you know, trying to make a life. And I thought, well, actually, no, because uh first of all, the f the first sense I I recovered when I woke up was I'm grateful, I'm grateful, thank God I'm still here. You know, it's like I want to see my kids grow grow old, like this is amazing. Uh, I've been giving a second chance. But then in that post that I posted on Instagram with the the air ambulance crew who saved my life, is that I also feel that without their hard work, I wouldn't be here. And so I'm very grateful, and you mentioned it as well, like how you know you you've got a professional opinion in the medical field, you you know that these people are trying their best to diagnose you, to save you, to repair you as much as they can. And for me, it's like, well, they've done such an exceptional job, I can't possibly disappoint them now in not you know enjoying this new lease of life that I found, you know. For me, that's yeah, that that was quite important.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Oh, that's such an interesting perspective. I guess I like fully get you completely, actually, because when I talk about like my I can't remember like my accident, like when I got meningitized and things like that, to the point where like when I see like pictures of myself with hands, it really doesn't resonate. I'm like, whoa, that was actually me at one point. And I like described the whole event like it happened in third person, like it was like a completely separate identity to like who I am now. And I feel like you're so right. Like when you have like a near-death experience like that, the thing that like drives me forward and motivates me forward now is the thought like of my younger self fighting for her life, being able to survive it. And then if I'm just like lazing about and I'm not living my life to the fullest after that, it's like, what was that fight even for? Like, so it feels really like maternal to your my younger self. I'm like, everything I do now, I need to make sure, you know, that that was worth it for her. But yeah, like you feel like you kind of owe it, you know, like you were so close to death. I think that is genuinely something that sticks with you forever.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

You know, you know, I was thinking about like afterwards, people people have asked me, like, but why do you do so much? You know, I travel quite a bit for for work, for speaking at conferences. I tried to resume like some of my sporting activities as far as the prosthetics are allowing me to do that. And people were like, but are you not afraid? And or is that not all too much? And I thought, well, statistically, something bad can happen to me now because I've I've you know maxed out my bad luck, so I should be fine statistically. Um, but also uh exactly as you said, it's like if I'm not enjoying my life to the fullest now, then what was the point of me surviving in the first place, you know? So I I I can I get that sense, and that explains why we've returned to Kilimanjaro for the second time.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Yeah, talk to me about that. Like, why did you want to do it again? I know you like thoroughly enjoyed the first time, but was it like a sense of like again proven this is possible, or were you just going for a stroll up there? Now it's your second time, you knew you could do it. Like, how was that?

SPEAKER_02 15:59

I think it's a bit of both, but what I what I I noticed in the first ascent, so eight days climbing up almost to six thousand meters in altitude is amazing, it's super tiring, it's physically really enduring, but mentally it does something amazing because it's not that technical, it's not like Everest where you have to really fight for your life every minute that you climb up there. It's more of a very, very long hike, and uh and you've got plenty of time to be inside your head. And I don't know if it's a combination of the the rhythms, you know, putting one foot in front of the other, uh, or if it's the the emptiness, because there's hardly anything out there apart from nature and a few other hikers, you know. But you you get into your head and it's almost like a meditation. And I managed over eight days to clean up my the cobwebs of my mind. So everything that was holding me back, everything that had like a painful memory attached to it, everything was just cleaned up. By the time I got to the top, I thought I'm a new person, and this is why I called myself invincible in that moment where it was like, oh, all the bad memories that I've you know collected over the years, they're all gone now. This is a clean slate, and so that was mentally so uh extraordinary that it kind of was the motivation for the second time round. It's like, well, I've sustained enormous trauma. Um, psychologically, this will be quite difficult to overcome. But last time that meditation up the mountain actually helped me quite a lot. So maybe I can do maybe I can do it again just to you know get rid of the trauma. And then the other part is that I wanted to prove it to myself and to my children and to my husband saying, like, look, with the right support, with the right team around me, with the right help, with the right prosthetics, you know, with the financial means, then nothing is impossible. We can do this again.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Yeah, for sure. And you did, you did, which is awesome. And did you wear like the prosthetics all the way up there? Were there any like troubles there? Were they were they good? Were they helpful?

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Yeah, no, actually, the the I wore the prosthetic leg all the way um up there. I had um a variety of different liners to support me because of course we were worried about you know blisters and chafing and swelling, and I had no idea like how your residual limb reacts in extreme temperatures. It could be very hot during the day, very cold at night. So I had no idea. And so we went out with a whole pharmacy and two doctors. So the amazing part here is that we had um I met two women, they're both called Kat. Cat with a C was my um my physio and health coordinator at uh the trauma ward at the Royal London Hospital, and Kat with a K is my uh clinical lead at uh at Dorset Orthopedics, um, who is the prosthetist and physio team that supported me in my recovery. And both of them were quite adventurous. So I asked them both, would you like to join me on this crazy adventure? And they said, Yeah, you bet, no problem. So having them to support me, you know, and they were unflinchingly confident that I would be able to do this, and that their confidence obviously helped me be confident about myself too. Then I didn't wear the full bionic arm that I have because I had no need for it walking up there. Also, it's really quite heavy, so it would have been quite difficult for me to carry it up the mountain like that. But I had a lightweight version that had no elbow, and it was they they coated it with glow in the dark paint, so I could see it in my tent in the morning, like going through all of my gear. I could find it, but it was it didn't have an elbow, so it stopped at the elbow, and it had like a clip on where I can put my hike hiking pool inside, which would help me with balance on the way up and on the way down, um, which was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Obviously, because like obviously you are experiencing prosetics with the arms and the legs now. Like, I know nothing about prosetic legs because I have you know I'm a double hand amputee. And I was wondering what's been harder to adjust to? Is it the legs or the arms?

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Wow, good question. I mean, I my kids asked me this once. Would you rather lose a leg? And I was like, wow, okay, so to be fair, losing a leg is not great because you can't it affects your mobility so much. Like I can't get out of bed without my prosthetic leg. Like I can't even hop on one leg because I don't have two arms to balance. So I am literally bed bound if my prosthetic leg doesn't fit, and so that puts me at risk because um if any component of my prosthetic leg breaks down, or if my skin develops any bruising or chafing or blistering, then I can't put the prosthetic leg on, then I am completely wheelchair bound. So that that and my mobility is extremely important to me. My house is not designed for wheelchair usage, I can't go to work, you know. It's like it has so many ripple effects that that but then again to be to be transparent, like missing my dominant hand and missing my my elbow. Is very complicated. And you know that so well. You know it better than me. It's like the world has not been designed for people without a hand, without fingers, without dexterity. And so I get frustrated that I need help for almost everything. And the smallest things can be so frustrating, like putting on an earring or uh buttoning up clothes, and you know, all the it's the little things like cutting your food. You have this amazing steak in front of you, and you can't cut it because your politic hand is not there, or you know. So, but it's very, it's very hard to decide between the two. I'd I'd say I'd say the leg is probably the most important because that affects my mobility the most.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

But at the same time, what is the most debilitating is the fact that you don't have a hand.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

So yeah, it's not a nice choice to have to make. No, no, I'm sorry. In regards to like the prosetics that you wear here today, how are those ones working? Because they're pretty advanced. Can you tell us how you know you operate the arms? Anything cool about that and the leg as well. How does all that work?

SPEAKER_02 23:32

So I have um a bionic arm that goes usually, I'm not wearing it now because it has drawbacks as well. I'll tell you, tell you about the drawbacks as well. Because the the arm is absolutely incredible. It has um an articulated elbow, it has a bionic hand with hundreds and hundreds of grip patterns that you can set yourself. Um, it works over my electric technology. I wear usually a silicon liner that has electrodes embedded within. Those electrodes are in constant uh contact with my skin, very similar to your setup as well, where you think about the movement, you contract the muscles and the tendons in the right sequence, it equates to a movement that your elbow and the hand then make. The uh the bit that I find super interesting there is that it is uh AI supported. So I remember when I first trained with the elbow and the hand, I used uh an app on my phone with a game that you can uh nickname Simon says. It's basically the the app tells you to do a gesture and then you have to replicate that gesture as fast as possible. And uh I struggled with that a lot because there was a delay between a time, the moment you thought about a gesture and the moment the gesture executed. And it could be quite long, like 10 seconds is quite long. But what happened is that every time I use the ARM, data is collected and stored on an external server. And an AI algorithm goes through these data sets and starts analyzing and finding patterns. It's a pattern recognition AI algorithm. And once it's established, basically it learns how I use the hand, say, oh, yeah, when she twitches that muscle, it equates to that gesture. If she does the opposite muscle on the other side, it's to open the hand or close the handle, whatever. And then once it's got enough data to play with, it switches over to become generative AI. Meaning it starts to predict what the movement is going to be. So instead of having to perform the full tenths of the muscle to be picked up by the electrode, I just have to do a small flicker, which makes it a loss a lot easier to a lot faster as well to use. So that's really cool. Yeah, it's really cool. And what I'm excited about is that it's just the beginning of this technology, right? It's like I hope that uh we generate enough visibility and enough interest to have like these hybrid humans that we are, you know. I describe myself 80% human, 20% bionic, which I love that. You have a good description of yourself like that as well. So everybody finds that, you know, they're part part cyborg, part robotic. But I hope that people can see this as an opportunity um to regain their mobility or regain health is by being augmented and have this fusion between technology and and and and and a human. And I can see that's going to develop over time.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

You stepped into a completely different space now where you're a public speaker, you're traveling around, you're going to Asia soon, which sounds so exciting. And meanwhile, testing all of this technology. What is like the most important topic for you to get across when you're doing these talks?

SPEAKER_02 27:11

I guess aesthetics, you're right. Aesthetics is something that we care about as users, as wearers of the technology, but at the same time, it I don't think it's at the forefront of the everyone's um uh engineering, you know, thinking. It's like uh let's not forget that we are looking at form and function uh simultaneously. It's like it's a limb that replaces an existing limb, uh a limb that we had previously, you know. Uh it should look like part of our body in some form, or it should be a form of expression. If you want to look like a robot, it should be you know looking like a robot, but it should be aesthetically pleasing as well as performing. And that for sure is something that I focus on. I mean, in my ideal world, I would ask Apple to design my limbs to make it sleek as an iPhone is probably what you know, and have additional functions because I'm like, why stop at just wanting to replace the functionality of an arm or a hand? You know, let's go beyond that. Can I have, I don't know, can I have a lightsaber attachment?

SPEAKER_00 28:27

You know, can I have yeah, you get it, you get it.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

The pointer, I don't know, can I have a paddle, you know, ping-pong paddle attached to it without me having to actually hold it in a hand, you know? Can I stick a knife in there rather than having a hand that holds the knife? You know, it's like, can I have my my iPhone embedded in the forearm? Can I charge it there as well? You know, can I just use it as a screen? Like, let's be creative.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Hello yeah, like the possibilities are genuinely endless. Like, I know when I rocked up with like my big fat vision board of everything I wanted, like Bluetooth speakers, personal assistance was like top of the list, you know. And yeah, technology is getting better and better. And you know, especially I don't know about yours, but like these ones are like Bluetooth that I wear. So I'm like, but Bluetooth is like limitless, like we could do so much with Bluetooth in itself. Like, can we connect to like other things? I was talking to another guy who has who hacked his prosthetic arm to be able to like DJ and control a modular synthesizer with his muscle signals, and it was like that is so so cool. And we were talking about what if you could connect a Bluetooth to like when you're giving a presentation, you like like flex a certain muscle and you can progress the slide or like go back. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 29:44

How do you say that? Because I was doing a presentation yesterday and the clicker malfunctioned, and I literally said that. It's like, oh well, that would be useful to have inside.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

I did see something that you were talking about in one of your talks, and it went viral. And you were saying that prosthetics weren't designed for women, and that really struck a chord with me because I'm a girl wearing prosthetics, and again, it was like a massive thing that you know my parents were worried about when they first started looking into prosthetics and things like that. The smallest hand available was like way bigger than my mom's hand, and she's a fully grown adult. I'm five foot, you know. So it's like when the smallest hand is bigger than you would be fully grown, and you're trying to experiment and you're a child, like getting into prosthetics and things like that. It was such a drawback. I mean, it's a huge topic of conversation in general because you know, women have been so absent from research in healthcare in general. Like, I've got some stats which are crazy. Like, only 29 to 34 percent of participants in phase one trials are women, and it wasn't until 1993 that, you know, like before that point, we were prohibited from participating in clinical research at all, which is just baffling because that wasn't that long ago. And I was wondering, what is your opinion on that gap? And as a disabled woman, like why is that so important and overlooked?

SPEAKER_02 31:19

Well, I I can tell you from from my experience with the NHS, which was sobering because I had waited for my NHS arm for about three and a half years. It was it's it's my electric, but it's like a two-electrode sight um socket and you know a manual elbow and a hand grip basically, where you open and close. And so a very basic function. And uh and uh I remember asking for what options I had for the bionic hand, and I was very interested in a particular hand because it was hard wearing, fully waterproof, shock-proof, dust-proof, whatever. It was designed for the outdoors. And I like the outdoors, and I wanted to do more activities using a you know, specifically designed hard knock hand. And they were like, Yeah, yeah, we have that hand on the NHS. So I was like, Yay, Christmas, Easter, all at the same time, you know. And then I arrived in that appointment for the tryouts, and the hand on the table was twice the size of my own. And I thought, oh yeah, that's the demo hand, isn't it? And they said, No, no, that's the hand. And I said, Oh, but clearly you have a small version of this because this is a very big hand. And they said, Yeah, yeah, there is a well, you know, what we call the female version of this hand, but unfortunately it's not on the NHS, so you would have to purchase that privately. And I thought, wait, what?

SPEAKER_00 32:55

Wait, that's crazy because it's it's the same arm, but just a female version, but you have to go private for that female version between you and me.

SPEAKER_02 33:03

We know exactly what the reason is is that a smaller version might be marketed for a higher price, and therefore it missed the cutoff, so it's a bit money issue, but uh, but that's not my problem. My problem is that I'm a taxpayer and there's no discrimination in the taxes that I pay. I don't get a rebate because I'm a woman, you know, I pay the same as any other man in my in my touch bracket. And um, and so arriving at the NHS, which is what you pay taxes for in part, you know, it's public service, then you you you you are you know uh expecting to be treated the same, but then you're not, and it makes a huge difference because you know that hand retails for over 60,000 pounds for a private client, like I would be. Like, who's got that kind of money and why would I? You know, and so I got upset and I did ask the question. I asked the clinical team why, I did ask NHS England why, I asked my MP, who's Kirstama, why, and that was back in December, and we are now what April, and I only got some wishy-washy defensive responses that actually don't explain why this is the case and what they're going to do in order to get that hand on the list, you know, because I'm not just saying that because I want that hand, I know that so many other people who might be in a similar situation. I visited some uh some recent amputees, traumatic amputees at the Royal London Hospital at the start of the year, and you know, uh they were I I met two women there who will need prosthetics that are actually their size, you know, and not having the same option as a man, that made me really sad. That made me really sad. Not to be able to tell that that 18-year-old girl, like, well, you're probably going to struggle to find a hand in your size. So for me, it's like, no, no, we have to fight this, like we have to speak up on this, and we have to, and and that's the case for everything, is that things are not going to change if we don't say anything.

SPEAKER_00 35:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

Things are only going to change if we actually voice our opinions and say, excuse me.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:20

Why not?

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Yeah, 100%. It's so important because again, it like it leans into like your prosthetic hand is more than that. Like, it's like an extension of you, like you're they're trying to replace a hand that you've lost, and yet they don't have your side. It's I find that crazy that the male version was on the NHS.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

Like, it makes such a difference, like, it's not just for an aesthetically, you know, inaccurate anatomical point, it's also bigger the hand, the heavier it is, and the harder it is to control, of course, right? So not only do I look ridiculous, like you know, the hulk with my massive hand, but you know, at the same time, I'm unable to use it because it's too hard to do, you know. So, and and I I bring it back to the fact it's like, well, I'm sorry, if I pay the same taxes as any man, then I deserve the same service, you know, of those public services. So that to me does not make any sense.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Preach. I agree with that. Like, let me know next time we're like the storm in number 10, because I will be there right there. Like, um, it is Limb Difference Awareness Month this month, which is why I'm like spotlighting Limb Different People on the podcast this whole month. It's been so much fun, like talking to everybody. This would be your fourth Limb Difference Awareness Month since your accident and becoming an amputee. Did you even know that that was a thing? Like, what does that community mean to you now?

SPEAKER_02 37:00

I mean, that community is a lifesaver for sure. And I didn't know it existed before I had my incident, of course, that my mind was completely on other things. Uh, but now I can say that truly it is a lifesaver. Like, I've had so much support from individuals who had all sorts of different limb differences, you know, uh be it by birth, be it from an accident, from a disease, be it the arms, the legs, you know. It but everybody has that same understanding of knowing how vulnerable we are, how fragile, but at the same time, how strong and resilient we show up. And so you know, try and try to explain to people what it feels like to have phantom limb pain. Nobody understands that unless you are missing a limb, you know. And so being able to seek advice in the community or sometimes just seeking for inspiration, you know, if I having if I'm having, you know, uh my my own struggles to overcome, I love to go into my you know community and see that other people have overcome this and that, that they've climbed those mountains, that they've you know done those modeling jobs, you know, traveled to India and spoken at that tech conference, like you do, you know. It's like, but that makes me feel good. I'm like, yes, okay, good. I'm not on my own. Like everybody feels those struggles, but everybody tries to overcome and say, Well, you know, we've got one life, let's make the best of it, like speak out, let's spread the message, let's get people excited about the possibilities, you know. That is really important.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

Yeah, for real. Like the community is insane, and like the way that you light up thinking about that and like talking about people who are role models to you is crazy. Like, you are also a role model within that community. And so, this is my like last little question for anybody who's listening in Honor of Lim Difference Awareness Month. If there was like a kid, maybe a young girl or somebody else who is Limb Different and listening to this right now, and they're in a part of their life where they're kind of feeling like they need to go in deep to you know get this resilience, the same resilience that you have. What advice would you give to that person?

SPEAKER_02 39:15

I would say be very mindful of the people that surround you, because that is really what saved me. Uh, aside from the professionals in the medical fields and the prosthetists and all the engineers that I, you know, worship because they are amazing. But what really supported me after that were the people around me. And so I want to be surrounded by good people, by people who share my values, who want to make the world a better place, who, you know, they who know they can come to me with their problems and I will do my best to help them. I think that that and the and choosing the right partner in life as well, because I was extremely lucky that my husband is awesome. He has you know supported me so much, he's my absolute rock. Um, he has picked me up when I thought I could not go on any further, you know. And I hope that my children have seen that, that when when you are yourself a good person, you try to be friendly and supportive of others, not just focused on yourself, you know, be generous with your time um and your actions, then people will rally around you when you are in need of help yourself, have empathy for others, you know. We were never meant to be doing this whole life thing on our own.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

100%. We're all like we're all going through this together. Do you know what I mean? And I think that's why community is so important. I've genuinely like loved this whole month talking to people who are in like that limb different community.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

And don't forget, like, you know, my motto hasn't changed. Nothing is impossible, it's even less impossible now with that mindset of you know thinking about the positive outcomes rather than just seeing problems.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

Oh, I love it. Awesome. Thank you, Sarah. We're coming to the end now. I just want to make sure that we are plugging your socials. If anybody wants to keep up to date with your story or everything that you're doing, your activism, where can we find you across socials or a website?

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Um, so I do have a website, um, sjdelagarde.com. I have an Instagram account, SJ Delagarde, and then I'm also on LinkedIn uh for more professional views.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Awesome. Thank you so much, Sarah. This has been an absolute joy. I've loved talking to you. Thank you so much. And yeah, let me know whenever, like I said, we're storming number 10 and we can we can make real change happen together, you know. Thank you so much, Sarah, and I'll speak to you soon. Oh my god, that was so good. I have the exact same reaction after like every podcast interview I do, I sare. Like the people we get on here are so awesome. Again, what a role model to have on for Limb Difference Awareness Month. She is somebody who went from having awful limbs to losing two of them, a leg and an arm, and having to adapt like that. And like I said, her resilience is just unmatched. I mean, girl scales like Mount Kilimanjaro, not once, but twice. Please do go check out Sarah Delagarde. She is fantastic. And yeah, we were just chatting a little bit more there, which you didn't see because it's, you know, confidential, but we might be doing some things together. We might be making some changes around here for sure. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Tilly Talks Tech. I really do hope you enjoyed it. If you did, make sure to like, comment, subscribe, share, leave us a writing. Let me know who else you want to get on the podcast, whether they are limb-different bodies, whether it's a cool technological tool or something else. Let's go. Our fame is like human potential. So anything cool, let me know. Thank you so much for listening to this episode, and I will see you next time.