Amy Purdy

My dad gave me life twice. I thank him by using the strong body I now have.

I made a choice before I lost my legs that I was going to live the best life possible and that I wasn't going to let this slow me down - and that choice has kept me moving forward.

It was challenging. It was never easy for me. My life changed suddenly, and I lost my health. I lost the body that I knew.

When disease took my legs, I eventually realized I didn't need them to lead a full, empowering life.

I've never wanted sympathy votes in anything I do in my life.

If your life were a book and you were the author, how would you want your story to go? That's the question that changed my life forever.

I want to live a fulfilling life.

I have two prosthetic legs. This is my life; what am I going to do with it? And it's put me on this amazing journey. I can look back and be completely grateful and say I would never want to change anything.

Of course, I was 19 years old, and I suddenly lost my legs. It was extremely traumatic at the time, but I'm so beyond that. I've done so much with my life.

If somebody would've told me that I was going to lose my legs at the age of 19, I would've thought there's absolutely no way I'd be able to handle that. But then it happened, and I realized that there's so much more to live for, that my life isn't about my legs.

I was on my death bed, and I remember hanging on to these words, 'Don't be scared. You are going to live an amazing life,' and I have.

I always say snowboarding saved my life. It gave me a reason to focus on the future; it gave me something to be passionate about.