Kate Foster lost her left leg in her battle with Leukemia. However, her situation did not take her will to become a gymnast.
Kate's left leg needed to be amputated to have a successful marrow transplant when she was 12. She thought that her career in gymnastics was over but her coach said he is willing to try even though he had never coached a one-legged gymnast before, according to ESPN.
Kate is now 16 and back on the beams. She is competing against gymnast with two legs and was featured on "Good Morning America" on Friday sharing her wonderful story.
Kate started practicing gymnastics when she was seven years old. "She loved it, right from the beginning. The extra practices, the extra time at the gym," her mother, Barb Foster, told ABC News.
The diagnosis left Kate devastated. She remembers being told that her leg should be amputated or the infection that damaged her leg could take her life.
"I said 'You're not... you're not taking off my leg. I need that ... for gymnastics,'" she recalls telling her doctors. "And they were kind of explaining to me, you know, 'you know, this bone marrow transplant won't work unless we do this. It's really your leg or your life."
Kate feared that her life as a gymnast was over when her leg got amputated. But her coach did not agree.
"My coach said something to me that really changed my mindset. She said that she had never coached a one-legged gymnast before, but she was willing to try if I was," Kate said.
Today, Kate is traveling across the country, competing with her team in sanctioned gymnastics competition. She is the only competitor wearing a prosthetic leg and she is being treated the same as her peers.
"People tell me all the time that I'm an inspiration," Kate said. "But I'm just being me."
