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Dear reader:

I don't know what type of leg/socket combination you have, if you are an amputee, so I'll concentrate on my experience with what I have now and have had in the past. I have been a right-side AKA for about 12 years and have been uncomfortable with each and every prosthesis. I was 33 years old at the time of the amputation, and not particularly athletic.

Wearing a prosthesis, I found that I could not walk and chew gum at the same time, literally. The slope of he pavement and the roughness of the surface determined my route to everything. In short I became all but immobile other than to work and back. By the time I returned each day from work the stump ached so much that I was on crutches.

I tell people that one step on flat ground for me is the equivalent of one step up a stair for them, so when I walk a block it would be the equivalent of them walking up 10 flights of stairs. Also, the pain or discomfort is like them having a small pebble in their shoe that they cannot remove and that moves slightly with every step. They soon understand why walking 2 blocks was my limit.

I met Mack McColl through his brother.

I was skeptical and did it as a favour. Mack's device sounded too quirky for serious consideration, but I am always in favour of innovation, especially given the poor state of the prosthetics business. So when I went to see Mack I expected a brief meeting, say 1/2 hour.

Well, Mack took off his J-Leg and attached it to my socket within 15 minutes and I immediately learned to run again, though I look like an albatross taking off. I just had to have one, but they were still in the experimental stage.

That was a year ago and I haven't looked back since. I was recently in the Amazon on a cruise ship with 1200 Brits. I've been corresponding with a couple from Essex (I think).  They can telI you how I was able to navigate in the rain forest with the J-Leg.

I can now walk backwards or into a stiff wind. I even walk with my hands in my pockets which I never did before for fear of falling. I feel confident on the J-Leg on any terrain and any weather conditions (you know it snows here).

The device is being continuously refined based on the feedback of the wearers. I talk, though infrequently, with the machinist who does the manufacturing. You will find that both he and Mack are very approachable and willing to do whatever is necessary to satisfy you.

I wish you well and hope you will give it a try. It is quite liberating.

Thomas Buxton, Time wounds all heels (author unknown)

As to Tom's extensive travel tourism undertaken since switching permanently to the J-Leg, the photo above is Tom on the boardwalk in Santiago, Chile, after a walking tour of the jungle!

And from another world traveler, who describes resumption of an activity-prone lifestyle

Ken Millard, 66, was groping across Jasper Avenue and 101 street in Edmonton, Canada, wearing forearm crutches and a conventional contraption, uh, prosthetic leg, moving with difficulty and obvious pain. On that day his life transformed.

Mack McColl happened to be standing on the opposite corner bouncing from toe to JLeg, enjoying the same sunny day that Millard was trying to survive.

The exile struggled across main street in the very spot where humanity learns to be patient and tolerant by sitting behind the wheel in rush hour traffic being incredibly inconvenienced by the crippled person.

Ken was in a survival trundle outside the herd, reaching the curb one last time, before everything changed, and this time it was a turn for the better.

"How would you like to get across the street before they run you over?" asked McColl.

The offer sounded too good to be true. McColl showed Ken a quirky solution, "This will change things," he said, "You can go back to living instead of hobbling away from death."

Millard took one look at the device, and the obvious, and gasped, "I will try anything."

That was all it took.

When Allison was born she had one leg amputated Below Knee.

She instantly grasped the difference between the J-Leg and conventional prosthetic. She never had a leg and Allison experienced RESTORATION of limb sensation and highly improved muscle tone. Allison remains one of the early initiates to J-Leg and first to wear it below knee. Now in her teenage years she only likes it for sports and mountain climbing

Proven prosthesis gives amputees a leg upBy JAC MacDONALD

Edmonton Journal January 28, 2002, City Section Feature Article

Made miserable by unreliable, non-functioning, even dangerous prostheses since age 19, Mack McColl decided to design one for himself

McColl developed and patented an artificial leg that promises a new freedom and happiness for amputees long resigned to ridiculous pratfalls and painful stumps. www.uspto.gov search # 6,488,717 "It's a fun device and amputees don't get a lot of chances for fun, so why not?" says McColl.

The AK amputee, a writer, lost his leg, at age 19, in a traffic accident. "A car crossed the line and hit me head on and took the leg off," he says. "Basically from that point on, I was into prostheses or on crutches." His experience with artificial legs afterwards was "all bad," entirely dismal.

"A lot of people give up on prosthetic legs," he says, "As functioning members of society, they kind of disappear."

The 52-year-old became disgusted after 30 years of unexpected pratfalls, bone eating infections, and broken artificial limbs. The J-Leg was invented in Edmonton by McColl (and Colin Clegg). The device, which weighs less than 2 kilograms, emphasizes function over aesthetics. It allows amputees to walk distances, jog, run, and jump while eliminating the debilitating and further disabling stress that can mutilate an amputee's stump.

For years it has freed McColl from using the crutches to which he turned after giving up on conventional prosthetic limbs.

"The constant anxiety in the existing conventional technology is the unexpected falling," he says.

There is also Edmonton resident Gordon Adams who lost his leg to cancer 25 years ago and who recommends McColl's innovation to all amputees. For the past six years, he's been getting around like never before, Adams said. "It gives me a lot more freedom," he says. "I go a lot more places."

Cancer cost Calgarian Tom Buxton his leg in 1990. Other artificial legs were so precarious he wanted to stay at home as much as possible. If forced to leave, Buxton wouldn't go anywhere without bringing a cane. "I am no longer ruled by distances and by terrains," he says. "I just do not think about it anymore."

The limb is more comfortable. "It also does away with a lot of skin problems I had," he says. One downside of the J-Le is that it is not cosmetically pleasing. "A person has to be strong in deciding what they want. Do they want the cosmetics or do they want the freedom and ability this provides?" Buxton said.

Dr. Paul Zehr, assistant professor of neuroscience and physical education (formerly at the University of Alberta, now at University of Victoria)began to include the J-Leg as part of a study of reflex control of motion after the loss of a leg.  The study examined able-bodied people and other artificial limbs. The results were surprising. . . .

Build muscle instead of losing, and uppgrade to a living limb experience!

The world has need of a simple, affordable, and above all functional prosthetic leg. It is way to expensive to build and maintain the current line of limbs, and ever come close to meeting demand for prosthetic limbs.

It is my solution. EMAIL me and I'll tell you how to work out a trial version. If it works, LOCK AND LOAD, cause we'll take it from there.

This is a simple no-risk, no-failure scientific solution (top secret) for next-to-nothing that makes perfect sense if that's what you need. Nobody should have to pay through the nose after losing a limb only to find they don't walk. This is the all-too-common (virtual) and incipidly disgusting reality for leg amputees. My solution is an embarrassment to an industry that needs it to remain impossible for something so affordable, so simple, so trouble-free, to be given to leg amputees, never mind sold. They have chosen to thrive upon unaffordable contraptions based on 19th century logic to make people stumble into further health costs, limb repairs, and damaged lives. I am far from the only expert in the prosthetic industry's leitmotif of futility. I know how to walk without costing an arm and a leg. No more fight to the death against the prosthetics industry. It doesn't mean I give up or care. They are wrong. So what. I suspect they sleep comfortably with the knowledge that theirs is a known universe.

Mack McColl, Inventor, Amputee, Author, and friend to all. . .Email to find out more

YOU COULD BENEFIT IMMEDIATELY BUT REMEMBER NOTHING COMES EASY. Ask yourself if it has been easy so far.

If you are constantly stymied from pursuing your desired activity or lifestyle.Visit this site for video and other pages that show my professional life. At one point I realized how high a value I put on walking, when I visited 85 First Nations communities in 5 months, largely on foot. I am a professional writer by trade. Prosthetic limbs are not my vocation, but a deep and abiding avocation arising from disability as an above knee amputee. It's the universal truth to the industry, stick a door hinge on there and kick them out the door. Falling down? Not our problem. Get out.

I put J-leg together for the use of a dozen people. Putting on my invention makes them free to travel the world and return to former lifestyles, even rise from the ashes of prosthetic defeat. They have walked away to places like South Africa, News Zealand, the Amazon, anywhere they please, and they don't need a prosthetic technician hovering nearby to make sure they make it to the end of the sidewalk. ASK . . .OR READ BELOW to understand Concept and Niche...Raison d'etre (indulge me)...Function...Health benefits...Vision...

Why not make a simple, affordable limb that enables function for legs in a way hooks are useful to arm amputees? People can trust something simple and maintenence free with unique function-oriented features to add agility, response, and strength-building attributes (both muscle and shattered bone). It lets people live on their feet, work on their feet, or travel, or further a walking (and running!) experience, whenever they need it. Everyone from seniors to kids believe they can walk with the right device under them, and now, THEY PROVE IT.

Summary: A Patented Invention to work independent of standard prosthetic leg components. This device became a prosthesis nicknamed a J-Leg Enabler because it works so well. J-Leg prosthetic leg is a unique prosthetic leg affordable to amputees around the world. It was invented under U.S. Patent Number 6,488,717 That is 6,488,717

The concept is affordable prosthetic legs to work in a simple way to enable functional ambutlatory activity to amputees around the world, not just Industrial Nations but also in the Third World or Developing World. JLeg ends the wanton risk and rampant inconvenience found in leg prostheses, enabling leg amputees to extend the range of physical activities. The device in any permutation is incredibly durable and affordable and can interface in a simple way with any of the stump-socket designs on the market (Permutations in spelling are to attract the widest number of hits).

The American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists, says, "The amputee must be very careful in walking, especially on uneven surfaces, to avoid stumbling."

A J-Leg wearer can avoid this a sad recollection, and walk, stroll, jog, run or sprint away on a virtually unique prosthesis. Furthermore J-Leg Enabler stands to solve the world's problems with amputees who are left completely in the lurch where nothing is available (in the Developing World) from the bewildering array of clap-trap accessories foisted upon leg amputees in the rich countries. Little does the Industrial World realize this is one instance when the Developing World is better off left out of the horse shit machinations until someone comes up with an actual solution.

Amputees and immediate relations are aware of the loss of activity. Amputees have every right to expect, and expect more, progress from these groups and that is where the J-Leg Enabler should be made available.

Alberta Association of Prosthetists and Orthotists was asked to list the J-Leg on the schedule of prosthetic leg devices, and the inventor was informed that J-Leg was good to go under schedule Number TKN 319. Said it, did nothing and started persecuting me.

Let amputees employ a new range of activities enjoyed with J-Leg. We will answer questions from amputees, physiotherapy and medical personnel, and prosthetic companies and practitioners. Medically, orthopedic surgeons know me, they are aware of my past osteo-infection problems and the mutilated bone that has made an amazing recovery. Physiotherapists are specialists who deal with amputation. These professional groups, in particular, need to be informed about the claims of therapeutic benefits, proven with evidence from university study, and practical observation by others.

Certified Prosthetists (C.P.) are the primary source of`prosthetic accessories for leg amputees. We wish to inform prosthetic associations about J-Leg with facts about performance characteristics, installation. We are willing to provide prosthetists access to copies of J-Leg Enabler, made for specific amputees and providing uniform cost per unit.

Fake Legs functioning like natural legs are virtually nonexistent. J-Leg has appeal to amputees who have learned about a sudden closing of the function gap. When demonstrated the J-Leg attracts immediate curiousity, and we want to be useful, and demonstrative, to inform amputees that a 'familiar' experience with strong echoes of real-time walking awaits them.

Energetic, or athletic people like the inventor who played hockey and loves the outdoors, need more. Even the prosthetic industry accorded the utmost respect and service, but what do they offer? SQUAT, NOTHING, but calamity: Danger on a paved sidewalk. The absolute necessity for concentration on every single step, without fail. Sideways humping down a mere 20 degree incline or slope, and only safely if it is paved, and even then it is perilous.

The basis for development of J-Leg is basic function for Above Knee and Below Knee amputees. Put the body in motion. J-Leg has been thoroughly tested now over many years of experience walking around the entire world without one reported failure, full-time use by several at different activity levels, ages 12 to 65.

Study of benefits wearing J-Leg should be recorded and reported and tests that show benefits taken to people craving the walking endurance and ability and ease on stumps so necessary. Further study: why does J-Leg reverse withering stumps? Stumps on J-Legs build muscle whereas conventional prosthetics employing archaic methods and materials (wooden legs persist as rather commonplace claptraptions in the world of prosthetics) destroy stumps on a day-by-day basis that is practically litigiously evil. They are called appliances because they belong on a shelf.

Door hinges in no way resemble the interface between thigh and shin leg bones, neither on humans nor on any other living creatures. Existing methods conspire to shrink residual limbs and, to this end, J-Leg is a development acting opposite to reverse deadly atrophy!Healing attributes of the J-Leg were an unexpected bonus to high performance attributes noticed first. The first wearers are beneficiaries of  healthy stumps that increased in mass up to one-third since wearing the J-Leg. The inventor's stump was a smashed patchwork impossible to walk on with conventional prostheses. His stump was destroyed by the endurance contortions required to walk over a swing phase knee and land on a static 'foot'.

Enjoy muscle returning to the entire affected side of the body, beginning with the stump, and expanding, because you employ arms, back, and trunk with equal force, enabled by the J-Leg Enabler to do so. We invite study of the J-Leg Enabler's emerging health benefits. For one thing, every amputee's stump is periodically too ravaged by walking to accommodate anartificial leg. This situation has been removed in every amputee wearing a J-Leg.

The truth about J-Leg is that amputees obtain almost complete recovery from disability. The device eliminates World Health Organization permanently disabling condition. Amputees thus offered would certainly demand a try at the alternative device, which amputees will do when they feel and experience amazing function available.

Amputees will renew satisfaction with daily walking, and stop burning out stumps with sores, entertain sprinting as it moves them, including step-over-step running. It is available because of advances in metals. Old materials to simulate a human leg motion were too heavy to put on a stump. Today steel is strong and lightweight enough to compose a compact mechanical device to promote walking and running, which resembles, in function, the human leg in motion.

J-Leg Enabler is conceived out of a scientific study conducted by several cooperative laboratories operating independently in search of the answer to the question, what is the existing device that most resembles the human leg in motion? Function in prosthetic legs for amputees need not remain an unthinkable mystery or forgotten goal.

We want to inform special interests who deal with limb loss; Meanwhile J-Leg users should grow in number. Development of a sophisticated new leg prosthetic concept isn't easy and DON'T LET THEM tell you it is. Kidding aside, this device could meet the real demand that an informed public would make to help amputees anywhere in the world.