Nataliya Sklyarova from Mariupol learned not only to live without a leg in less than a year, but also began to actively engage in sports. The woman lives in a dormitory for displaced persons on Ternopilska Street in Lviv. Now she works in the women’s soccer team, whose members are women with amputated limbs.
Natalia took part in the “Maximum” training camp in Zolotonosh, Cherkasy region, which was organized with the assistance of the Americans. There, women with amputated limbs exercised every day and also played football. Their rivals were the camp workers, who, for equal conditions, tied each limb to themselves.
“During the game, playing sports, all thoughts fade into the background. There were times when I said I couldn’t do it anymore. At first it was difficult, it was all new, we were forced to do everything on crutches. Me and sports – it was incompatible before, but I liked it. I realized that I could do it,” says Natalia.
Natalia is now active and is looking forward to further training and participation in competitions. And she remembers the time when she and her husband came to Lviv in April. Later, the amputation happened, because the woman’s femoral artery was severed. This happened in January 2023.
The first month after the hospital, she did not know how to live on. Relatives helped, psychologists visited, who are involved in working with forcibly displaced Ukrainians. Then the woman herself began to look for opportunities for people with amputations.
Natalia underwent rehabilitation at the NEZLAMNI rehabilitation center. There, on the second day, she was given a prosthesis, which the woman used for a long time, because it was adjustable. Subsequently, they began to make a prosthesis for Natalia according to the measurements of her leg. Recently, a woman in Poland received a new prosthesis and is now actively learning to use it.
Thanks to her efforts, now, less than a year later, Natalia can already walk on a prosthesis without the help of a cane.