Army Veteran Explains Why She's Choosing to Amputate Her Leg at 28

At just 28 years old, Emmalee Lax of Yorkshire, U.K., was faced with a decision that most people could not imagine.

After a decade in pain, she has elected to have her leg amputated in the coming months.

Lax was just 16 when she joined the British Army straight out of school. Going through training at a nearby Army Foundation College and rising through the ranks, she was posted to Afghanistan for five months in 2016.

After returning from her tour of duty, Lax began work as an instructor recruiting other young people to the army before she was promoted to sergeant.

Despite a glistening career, Lax was struggling in the background as her physical health caused problems.

She told Newsweek: "In 2012, I started experiencing a lot of pain in my lower left leg. But because I'd only been in the army for two years at that point, I didn't want to lose my career. So I went for an initial assessment at the medical center and they told me I just needed to take painkillers and kind of man up."

While the pain was not caused by a specific event, doctors have told her that it is likely a result of the intense training. "Because I joined at such a young age, they're saying my body wasn't fully developed so I was still growing," explained Lax. "And all the hard work and training we put our body through—there's an overuse injury. No direct cause, it's just happened over time."

Because she didn't want to cut her army career short, Lax managed the leg pain for five years as it got gradually worse. By 2017, her condition didn't improve.

"It got really bad to the point where I could hardly walk," she said. "So I went to see a physio for a full year to try and find out what the cause of this injury was, but nothing was getting better."

In early 2018, Lax had her first surgery on her leg to decompress the nerves and try to relieve her pain.

"I tried to crack on, did all my rehab and physio to get fit again," she explained. "But I realized quite early on that the injury was still there and it wasn't getting better. It hadn't really fixed anything."

By this time, Lax had been promoted to sergeant and was able to manage her own workload. But the leg pain continued to cause issues and by early 2021, she had another surgery to perform the same operation.

"Since April 2021, my leg has been really bad," she explained. "The nerve damage got a lot worse and I couldn't perform my job to rank and roll."

After 12 years in the army and 10 years managing the ongoing pain, Lax was medically discharged from the army.

"It was really hard," she said. "My dad used to be in the service when I was younger and so was my sister. I wanted to follow in their footsteps. And because I got promoted quickly, I could have had another 12 years in service if I didn't get injured."

Since leaving the career she loved, Lax has been left with a permanent limp and barely sleeps most nights because of the ongoing pain.

Not knowing where to turn next, she went to get a second medical opinion. A doctor suggested a below-knee amputation of the leg.

"He agreed that it would be the best option for me, to give me a better quality of life," she said. "I tried, honestly tried, I did all my physio, did my rehab, had the surgeries. But nothing. It hasn't got better."

With the pain getting progressively worse, Lax has made the tough decision to have her leg amputated.

"It's the best option for me," she said. "I'm not getting any younger and I'm probably the fittest I've ever been physically. Let's get it done so I can recover and move on."

Relentlessly positive, Lax says that making the decision to go with amputation wasn't easy. But she hopes it will improve her life.

"It's not going to get any better if you're down about it," said Lax. "You're not going to hit your goals if you're always feeling sorry for yourself. I feel like you need to be positive. If you're positive, you recover quicker. It's been proven."

As she starts on the journey that she hopes will change her life, Lax is sharing the experience online across social media and especially on YouTube where she will be posting updated content as things progress.

"I am going to document the whole story," she said. "The good and the bad. If it's a bad day, I'm going to be honest. I feel like potentially I could help some people by talking about my story."