On Tuesday 14th April a consignment of disassembled components of prosthetic limbs was sent off to STAND in Bristol for shipment to Africa.
The pallet contained twenty-four boxes of prosthetic limb parts weighing just over a quarter of a ton in total.
Men’s Shed, and Rotary members are extremely grateful to K&G Aberdeen who kindly offered to organise the transport delivery of the cargo to STAND base in Bristol, free of charge!
This consisted of: – 156 Cups (the part that the severed limb is inserted into), 156 Pylons, 262 Feet, 144 Connectors, 165 Knee joints and 53 assorted new bandages & socks.
Willie Shepherd, an engineer, who has taken responsibility, in the Shed, for the disassembly and shipment of the limbs, estimates that there are enough component parts to make up approximately 120 full prosthetic legs.
Since the start of this initiative, previously under Legs4Africa, Willie and his helpers have provided enough parts to provide over six hundred limbs for African countries, in the process, expending over one thousand man hours in the shed.
The prosthetic limbs collection is organised by John Robson of Stonehaven Rotary Club from hospitals all over Scotland and delivered to Stonehaven Shed.
There, Willie takes them apart and saves the valuable parts which are then sent off to Africa, where STAND organise their reassembly and fitting to amputees.
To put this service in perspective, the cost of a full prosthetic leg is on average around £10 – £15 thousand pounds each.
For this batch alone, this would be a total material value, if provided new, of between £120,000 and £180,000 plus the man-hours involved in processing the limbs.
This service by STAND is a great boon for Sub-Saharan Africa. The consignment arrived at STAND in Bristol on Thursday 16th April.