Friday, August 1, 2008

Britain's Missing Top Model says having one arm is no big deal

In an interview in The Daily Mail about her photo shoot for the magazine Marie Claire after winning Britain's Missing Top Model reality TV show, a competition for disabled women, Kelly Knox, 24, said she feels lucky to be born without a left hand and lower arm.

"I didn't look down at my arm once, or even remember I was missing an arm. But I've spent a lifetime ignoring it - it's second nature to me. If I had been born with two arms, I would never have been in this magazine. In fact, I'm the lucky one," she explained.

As a child, she hated any prosthetics that were tried and has never worn one since.

Although she feared the TV program might turn into a "freak show," she says she was interested to meet people with other disabilities.

"But part of my interest was the fact that I've never actually thought of myself as disabled," she said. "I've never sat down and fretted about my arm, or even wondered what life might have been like if I'd been born with two. I was actually curious to know what I would be like around people with different disabilities.'"