Founder of Legs4Africa: ‘We got him walking again’

I arrive at the Legs4Africa workshop, based on Upper York Street, where I am greeted to the sight of a small but packed room filled with containers of dismantled prosthetic legs and components, feet organised by size.

Tom Williams explains: “We have quite a lot at the moment which is great as it’s a sign that we are getting a lot more support and recognition – not just in the UK, but across Europe, the US, Canada.”

Tom, 37, is the founder of St Paul’s-based charity Legs4Africa. He has recently been awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the King’s New Year Honours for his services to amputees in Africa and to the environment in recycling prosthetic legs.

Approximately 2000 prosthetic legs go to landfill each year in the UK alone. At the same time, roughly 1.7 million people in Africa are awaiting prosthetic limbs. Tom closely works with NHS clinics and hospitals to recycle no longer needed prosthetic limbs.

A huge thank you to everybody who helped us to raise £20,000 last week! We have been featured on ITV news to celebrate the success of our campaign. We will keep you updated on the Counselling and Peer Support in Ghana over the next year ?? pic.twitter.com/BQuZBOTgP0

— Legs4Africa (@Legs4Africa) December 8, 2022

The charity recently raised £20,000 in a week during its Step into Christmas campaign that aimed to increase mental rehabilitation for amputees who are in north Ghana. The money will go towards training and supporting up to four new workers who will help to support individuals who face limb loss and are coming to terms with their situation.

Explaining how he formed the idea of Legs4Africa, Tom says: “I went out to the Gambia and I met this man called Paul who lost his leg to diabetes. I spent a couple of weeks over there and got a really good insight into what it’s like and I wanted to see what I could do with getting him a leg.”

Tom explains how he didn’t know how difficult it would be trying to find a prosthetic leg but he was lucky to find a prosthesis based in Portsmouth who was an amputee himself. He had heard Tom’s story and was willing to make him a leg in his spare time.

The prosthetic feet in the Legs4Africa workshop – photo: Cara Scott

Support came from his family too, with Tom’s grandmother paying for a return flight back to the Gambia. He hadn’t told Paul’s family that he had got this prosthetic leg yet.

He added: “I knew it was an act of kindness and that I was doing something good, but it wasn’t until I sat down and there was a huge celebration. This guy’s independence, the burden it took from his family. Everyone was contributing to support him as he used to be the breadwinner. So we got him walking again and he was able to get back to work.”

This story got Tom in the national press and from there onwards, people began to get in touch with him and Legs4Africa began.

Tom Williams with amputees in Africa – photo: Legs4Africa

“I came out of nowhere and started asking these centres if we could have your legs and I was overwhelmed by the amount of ‘yeses’,” Tom says.

“The thing is, the feedback I was getting from the limb centres was that no one else was doing it. It’s such a tragic waste. They were constantly throwing them out. They can range from monetary value but just a knee alone can cost £50,000.”

Legs4Africa has rescued over 14,000 legs which would have otherwise gone to landfill. Tom tells me this is approximately 42 tonnes and while the charity is doing something amazing for amputees in Africa, especially helping community projects and offering emotional rehabilitation, they are also helping the environment across the world by recycling used prosthetic legs.

Even though Legs4Africa very quickly became an international organisation, Bristol is the base of the charity and the place that he and his friend, Phil (who is the CEO of Legs4Africa) decided to move to. Bristol lay half way between where Tom was in Leicester and where Phil in Falmouth.

“Leicester didn’t really have a big international development sector and I was struggling to get support. Bristol has a good international sector and there are connections here. We will definitely stay in Bristol as it is a good part of the country for what we are doing. The place we’ve got in the centre of Bristol is super convenient.”

The legs are dismantled in Bristol too, surprisingly by a group of retired men in the city. Three groups around Bristol meet every few weeks to dismantle each part of the leg and send back the components to the workshop.

“The feedback I’ve had from those guys is that they love it and it gives them a sense of purpose and brings them together,” Tom adds.

Tom tells me that they collect a lot of their legs from the limb centre in Bristol near Cribbs Causeway. They have supported the charity and given them loads of components, prosthetic ovens, and tools over the years.

“I’ve been really impressed with the people in Bristol – when it comes to support, we have lots of legs coming in and we’ve got a great network of volunteers that we call upon as well as making connections,” Tom says with a smile.

“With the culture that we’ve grown, it has become a little family. We have a nice family supportive culture.”

Main photo: Cara Scott

Read next:

• Bristol charity advent calendar 2021, Day 11: Legs4Africa
• The people from Bristol recognised in the Kings New Year’s Honours 2023
• ‘Aid box community is a Bristol-born charity like no other’

Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast: