‘Forrest Stump’: Amputee to host Kentwood 5K, raise awareness

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A University of Michigan graduate is back in the Mitten State this week to raise awareness and funding for amputees.

Nicole Ver Kuilen was just 10 years old when she lost her leg to osteosarcoma or bone cancer. Prior to her surgery, Ver Kuilen loved playing with friends, kicked the soccer ball around and rounded the bases while in her softball league. But after surgery, Ver Kuilen and her family were surprised to learn that insurance does not cover prosthetics for physical activity.

“It’s incredibly expensive for the average individual,” she said, with prosthetics ranging from $5,000 to $40,000. “But in the grand scheme of healthcare, it’s not that expensive to provide prosthetics for mobility and to restore someone’s ability.”

Ver Kuilen said she spent many of her formative years still competing as an athlete, but because her prosthetic was for walking, it wasn’t uncommon for her to break it every six months or so.

“The thing that I did not realize as a 10-year-old was getting back to running as a child would be considered not medically necessary,” she said.

Then came 2017, when Ver Kuilen put it all on the line, quitting her job and committing to a two-month-long, 1500-mile triathlon down the West Coast.

“Immediately when we started thinking about that run across the country, the name Forrest Stump came to mind,” she said. “So we leveraged that to raise awareness for the community.”

During her treacherous journey, Ver Kuilen once again broke her walking prostatic, but as fate would have it, a group in San Diego awarded her with a running blade upon completion.

“That epitomizes why we decided to do this in the first place is the fact that individuals like myself, amputees, can’t get access to what we need to be physically active and to live our lives in the same way everybody else does,” she said.

Since then, she has spent her time working as an advocate for amputees to remind the nation that everybody and everybody matters.

“It’s emotional thinking about how my journey could have been different if I had been able to get access a lot sooner,” Ver Kuilen said. “Because I think not only is it a physical healing but an emotional healing. Because, like I said, not having access made me feel like I wasn’t as good as everyone else or that I didn’t deserve to have the same opportunities as everyone else.”

Ver Kuilen has helped create laws within five states over the past two years that require insurance to cover prosthetics and orthotics for physical activities. Eight additional states have introduced bills and 30 others, including Michigan, are working to introduce similar legislation.

“This system is broken, and we need to change this so the next 10-year-old who has cancer can get access to what they need,” she said.

On Saturday, Ver Kuilen will host the city of Kentwood and Mary Free Bed’s Limb Loss Awareness 5k. The all-ages, all-abilities event kicks off at 9 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Park. The race is meant to spread awareness and raise funds for limb loss and limb-limited community as those in Michigan continue to depend on charitable donations to gain access to adaptive blades.

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