Charlotte amputee advocate drives ambitious mission

RAY WALLACE

Ray Wallace (left), who was born with a shortened femur that resulted in amputation of his right leg, empowers peers who’ve lost limbs as leader of Queen City Amputees.

Ray Wallace’s mission is to provide empower and support people without limbs.

He’s spent his life without a right leg, which inspired him to lead a normal life and help people living with similar challenges overcome them.

“I was born with a birth defect that left my femur shortened,” said Wallace, leader of the nonprofit Queen City Amputees. “I almost didn’t have one. My knee was practically connected to my hip when I was born, so before I was 3 [years old] I had a knee fusion, and I had my foot amputated so that I could fit into my prosthesis.”

Wallace said in a way, growing up without the leg helped because he didn’t know what he would done later in life without it like several individuals in the support group. 

“One thing I like to say about myself is that I am very ambitious and very stubborn,” Wallace said with a chuckle. “I used to skateboard a lot. I remember one day I was playing with some kids in the neighborhood, and my father came out the door running and yelling, ‘Ray, no, don’t do that. You are going to get hurt.’ I thought to myself like, ‘Oh yeah, I have to do this now.’ Since he said I couldn’t, now I have to prove to myself that I can.”

Fast forward several years and Wallace got a job in high school working in a movie theater.

The first thing he bought was a skateboard.

“When I got my first couple of paychecks I went and bought a skateboard from Walmart,” Wallace said. “If you know anything about skateboards from Walmart, they are like skateboards with bricks for wheels. They are terrible … but I would skate all the time. Eventually there was a group of kids I started hanging out with who skated and they embraced me. They would always help out if I needed help getting stable [on the board] again. I could stay on the board fine but with no ankle I couldn’t do too many tricks. … But I could hold a camera, so I became their cameraman.”

It sparked Wallace’s love for filmmaking. He made a short fictional film about a veteran returning home with post-amputation depression. He eventually became a superhero.

“That film involved me making a cage for my prosthesis,” Wallace said. “I remember I was going to get my current prosthesis worked on, and I was showing my prosthetist. I was like, ‘Look at what I built.’ And he's like, ‘Let me show this to the guys in the back.’ And knowing what I know now, I know that he took that to the back to show the technicians, and they probably laughed their asses off, man… It was so bad. It looked like it was made from toothpicks and gum, because I can't remember what I used. It looked bad, but it had lights on it. It wasn't horrible. It showed some imagination.”

That experience led to Wallace learning how to make prosthetics, which he built for three years. Wallace worked for the Hanger Clinic where he met a man who started a patient-based support group. 

“I would go and attend because my boss was a little weird,” Wallace said. “He's like, ‘Somebody needs to stay in lockup afterwards.’ We'd have afterhours. He's like, ‘I don't feel right as an able-bodied person, like I'd be intruding.’ And I was like, ‘Bro, if you don't want to go just say it.’ So I would go, and I would stay and get involved in the group. It was a really cool thing.”

When the founder was no longer able to run the group, Wallace stepped up.

“The gentleman once had cancer and his cancer returned,” Wallace said, “and he let us know that he was no longer able to facilitate the group because he didn’t have the energy. He had to focus on himself, which is unfortunate. … And then he asked me if I wanted to take it up. So, I took up the group, and I ran it for, I think, about two years, and in that time, I realized that we have a lot of resources medically for amputees.”

Three years later, Wallace is still running Queen City Amputees.

“I think the biggest thing that I've learned is that the mind is the most powerful thing that a human being can have,” he said. “I know so many people who are living with limb indifference or limb loss, and the range is insane. I know people who I went to see them prior to having their amputation done. And then I saw them a couple days after, and they were sitting in the hospital bed smiling.”
Wallace said there are cases where amputees suffer mentally because they feel they can’t move forward or are a different person afterwards. 

“That is simply not true,” he said. “You are what your heart says you are. That is what makes you whole. It isn’t about the limitations you may have. I know a woman who is a quad amputee … and she has the most heart of them all. Life is going to throw you challenges. I don’t mean to sound like Rocky, but it isn’t about how many times you get knocked down but how many times you can get back up. … I’ll tell you I am blessed to have the opportunity that I have.”

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