Tuesday Mennie enjoys getting out and about with her dog Hamish.
But their daily walks are becoming more difficult – because her prosthetic foot is designed for a child and keeps breaking.
Tuesday, 31, has a rare congenital disorder known as Moebius syndrome, and was born without a left foot.
Her right is a child’s size 13, but the matching prosthetic can’t hold her weight.
The administrative assistant from Aberdeen says her artificial replacements repeatedly crack.
“I have to go to the NHS every couple of months to get a new foot put on,” she said.
“Because I’m an adult weight, my prosthetic is child-sized foot, so it’s not made for my weight.”
Tuesday says she’s asked NHS Grampian for a specialist prosthetic which will hold her weight, but has been told one isn’t available.
She also claims it was suggested by medical staff that she lose weight so it would work properly.
“They weren’t really going out of their way to help me,” she said. “It was more like ‘don’t walk as much’, or ‘lose weight’.
“It’s either get a bigger foot, which would mean I wasn’t balanced properly, or lose weight to be more a child’s weight.
“If I lost weight to be the right weight for my foot I’d be underweight for my height, so I wouldn’t be healthy.”
Tuesday is now trying to raise enough money to buy a £6000 prosthetic foot from a private company in Manchester.
“I just feel like I’m walking on eggshells. I’m worried that it’s going to crack, or I’m just going to be walking and it will break.
“If it breaks when I’m out, I don’t know what I’d do. I’d just like to be as independent as I can and have a prosthetic that lets me do that because I don’t feel right now that I have that.”
NHS Grampian said it would be happy to discuss the issue with Tuesday.
In a statement, the health board said: “While we cannot comment on detail in this case, we are sorry to hear about the issues Ms Mennie has been facing.
“We would be happy to discuss this with her further, and would encourage her to get back in touch with our clinical team.”
