Finally classified!
I am thrilled to announce I have finally been classified in para swimming. From my first para training camp on 7th Jan 2024 I’ve filled in forms, shown I can swim (on numerous camps), gone to land training and medicals and competed in a para gala where I was finally classified as an S9 swimmer. Now, I could have told you back on Jan 7th 2024, that I’d very likely be an S9 swimmer as most above-knee-amputees tend to be S9 swimmers, and I was pretty confident that my leg wasn’t going to grow back… but I followed the process anyway and here I am.
If I’m honest I think one of my forms must have got lost on someone’s desk back in early 2024 as the actual classification day (once I finally managed to get it booked in) was so quick and easy. I had my little leg measured to see what percent was missing, I was then watched in the pool for about 20 minutes and that was it… S9.
I’ve also been categorised as S8 in breaststroke but I can’t stand the breaststroke and very much doubt I’ll race it competitively… it’s impossible to do the frog leg kick with only one leg! But following my observation in the pool I took part in my first para gala that afternoon:
Since then I have competed in two mainstream galas with my swimming club and won 4 more Gold medals! (Still nothing for the breaststroke!)
I’m really enjoying the training and competing… but oh my goodness it’s a whole new world!!!! Who knew you could only wear FINA approved swimsuits? Who knew Crocs were such a fashion statement poolside (literally everyone has them and the coolest swimmers have the most Croc charms!) Who knew you needed camp chairs and dryrobes, and what’s with all the slapping of the skin and banging on the dive boards??? I do feel very out-of-my-depth (wink) and it’s all so different from the football pitch, but I seem to be doing okay and rising up the para S9 swim rankings.
Will I be at the 2028 LA Olympics? I very much doubt it… but Brisbane 2032, you betcha!
2025 modelling job highlights
Where is the time going? As we end another year I thought I’d blog about a couple of my favourite modelling jobs from 2025. Obviously my very first London Fashion Week walking the runway for Hengi Wang was a massive highlight, as was Birmingham Fashion Week and all of those stairs… but I never imagined I’d end up in Vogue Italia, but that’s where I found myself at the end of 2025!
I was lucky enough to be selected by Zebedee Talent (my agency) for an editorial shoot they hoped would confront the recent Sydney Sweeney ‘great jeans’ controversy. The original advert had the tagline: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” (meaning both denim and genetics). The visuals were Sydney, known for her “American” look (blonde hair, blue eyes), modelling the jeans. Some people suggested that there was a double meaning, that the ad used her appearance to imply her “genes” (beauty) are as good as her jeans, while also suggesting the jeans are great.
Now, if I’m totally honest I think she looks incredible and I think it was potentially just a pun that wasn’t properly thought through… but I was honoured that I could be part of the response with my tagline: “When are brands going to realise that perfection is overrated? Resilience is the real flex. Great jeans aren’t about your DNA, they’re about owning your story. I have one leg and I can still make denim my runway.”
True diversity in fashion definitely doesn’t exist yet and we have such a long way to go, but I feel so proud to be part of an agency and team of wonderful models who are pushing for change, and what a sensational photographer we had: Sam Binstead.
Another highlight this year was working with Steve Madden. I was invited to his London Loft Party where I had SO MUCH FUN! He’d sent me a pair of boots before the evening that I wore on the night…
…and I received another pair of shoes on the evening that I had tattooed with a personal logo. I am now also appearing in a lot of his online Christmas commercials from footage that was filmed throughout the party. Here’s a link to my BTS fun:
It really was a wild experience!
I am so excited to see what 2026 brings! Bring on the adventure!
It’s not great… but I loved it!
I hate to write this, but Japan isn’t accessible. I’m a really active amputee, but even I struggled. I’ll start with the negatives:
- There are no benches anywhere. Like literally anywhere.
- The subway is so rammed you always have to stand and no one gives up their seat.
- I didn’t see a single wheelchair or pushchair during my whole trip – that says all you need to know about accessibility in Japan.
I found myself Googling the reasons for this phenomena. It turns out that there is a cultural expectation to ‘move purposefully’ through public spaces, rather than ‘hang around’… the trouble is, nearly every other outlet on every street is a food outlet, so you find yourself buying food with nowhere to sit and eat, and eating whilst walking is a definite no-no in Japan. You’re sort of allowed to stand outside the 7-Eleven’s and eat, but you’ll still get disapproving looks and it all feels rather awkward.
There are no lovely coffee shops / eateries with street seating outside (due to a lack of space) and the seats inside are always full. I had to Google the question: “Do the Japanese eat out everyday,” because everywhere was always so rammed, but it turns out they don’t, it just looks that way because there are so many people in Japan… and to be honest that should have been obvious as Tokyo is the most populated city in the world with over 37 million people… and most of them can be found on the subway!
…and the tip I had before travelling was to book a hotel next to a subway station, which I did, but the subway stations are massive and you’ll find yourself walking underground for 15 minutes before you get to the platform.
So, the subways aren’t great, there are no benches to stop and take a rest, and there are no Lime Scooters or e-bikes like the ones you get in London and other major cities – absolute necessities for people like me who love to zip around easily. So basically you’re walking for long, long periods at a time… or you’re getting piggy backs!
The extent to which they don’t understand / cater for the needs of people with reduced mobility can be explained by my experiences with Yuki, my Japanese guide. I booked him via the Go With Guide website and very clearly explained that I had a prosthetic leg and could not walk for long periods. I’d booked a guided day in Kyoto and a day at Mount Fuji and both ended up having so much walking involved! “It’s just a short 1.5 hour walk around the bamboo forest” he’d say after we’d walked 1 hour to get to the bamboo forest!
The queue for the Hakone Ropeway that took us up the Owakudani volcano also highlights the lack of catering for mobility issues. It was a standing queue that snaked around the gondolas for 90 minutes. I asked Yuki to find out where the ‘accessible’ entrance or queue was, assuming there’d be one… after much argument with the person in charge, Yuki managed to get me a chair that I could sit on while my family joined the queue!
However, despite all of this, Japan is BRILLIANT! The volcano stank and my brother felt ill from eating the ‘black egg,’ but it is an absolute must!
The “black egg legend” in Japan refers to the belief that eating a kuro-tamago (black egg) from Owakudani can add seven years to your life.
So once we realised we’d need to get taxi’s everywhere, things definitely improved. Yes the Japanese subway is cheap and always on-time, but it’s simply not suitable for amputees, or anyone who likes to sit down or even breathe freely on their journeys!
The bullet train is different. This needs to be booked in advance and you’ll need a guide like Yuki to help you as the language barrier in Japan is significant. But I can’t recommend it enough. It whizzed us to Kyoto and we got the very best view of Mount Fuji.
Likewise the Romance Car to Hakone was spacious… but how you’d book it on your own I have no clue as visiting Hakone involves Hakone day passes, not just Romance Car passes. It is all very complicated so you’ll definitely need a local guide.
Spending money on taxis definitely made the trip a lot more expensive – they cost about the same as a London black cab – but it meant I could still see all of the sights I had planned, like the cat temple (Gotokuji Shrine) in the Setagaya ward and the world’s most famous crossing at Shubuya, the Meiji Shrine, the 2D cafe, and the Sensoji Temple at Kannon-Do.
There is so much history and culture in Japan which is wonderful – learning about the 1,001 Buddhas in the Sanjusangendo Temple, and partaking in all of the bowing and clapping and reading of fortunes – but I’d be lying if I didn’t say my favourite things were the Shibuya Crossing:
…and the amount of money I spent in Don Quijote!
Japan is just cool! That’s the best way to describe it, a really cool place with really cool things to see and do. This blog will end up being far too long if I list everything I did over there, but you can see it all on my Instagram page and take a look at my ‘Japan’ highlights reel to get a real flavour of my trip.
You’ll also be able to read more about it in the Jan 2026 issue of Hey Girl Magazine showcasing the most fire shots I had taken in Tokyo where I was modelling designer Xing’s techwear jacket.
So in summary it’s busy, it doesn’t cater for mobility issues, you won’t be able to sit down and take a rest, but it’s a place like no other and I loved every second of it!
Walking Birmingham Fashion Week 2025
Birmingham Fashion Week 2025 started with a bang! An incredible launch party at the really cool Old Library in Digbeth.
There were local artists displaying their work and I was beyond honoured to see myself up for sale! I’d done a shoot earlier in the year with Rahimat Onize Shaibu and she’d edited one of the shots into a really mesmerising piece:
I then had to get to work. I was there as a paid model, and my job was to stand on a plinth as a ‘live mannequin’ for 5 hours! Yes, that’s right! 5 hours! Stood still on a small box with a prosthetic leg… but the pay was great (and I was actually allowed to sit occasionally and go for refreshments.)
The main Birmingham Fashion Week runaway show came a few days later. This year the venue was Millennium Point … and anyone who knows Birmingham and knows Millennium Point knows there are tons and tons and tons of stairs.
So, to clarify, as an amputee model so far this 2025 fashion season, I’ve had to do the slowest of walks in the biggest of heels, I’ve had to stand on a plinth for 5 hours, so why not walk a runway with a ridiculous amount of stairs? I honestly felt like saying: “And now, for my next trick:”
But I did it, and I did it without falling or tripping (a couple of models almost slipped on the stairs, but they were wearing heels and that was just a step too far for me!) Anyway I was honoured to wear some fantastic designers – who didn’t mind my flat shoes for this ‘stairs-heavy’ runway!
Here’s a video where you’ll get an idea of just how long the runway was! And I walked it more than 10 times through the course of the show!
The event was a HUGE success and I can’t wait to see what Birmingham Fashion Week have up their sleeves for next year!
Here’s some BTS so you can get a real feel of how much fun these events truly are:
Hengdi Wang SS26 ‘Exogensis’
Having blogged all about Birmingham Fashion Week 2024 and 2025, I thought I’d write about how I took the ‘next-step’ and got booked for London Fashion Week! And what a show it was! Hengdi Wang’s SS26 demi-couture collection ‘Exogensis.’
It all started when I was on holiday this summer, camping in the South of France. I got a request through my agency Zebedee Talent to attend a casting in London for fashion week. Unfortunately I had to decline due to being away, but the designer asked if I’d film a self tape instead. The instructions were really clear. Watch the video of the previous season’s walk (below), put on heels of at least 10cm and walk in a similar style.
Now, I was on a surf holiday, camping in a cabin, no heels, no appropriate clothing, nowhere flat to film the self tape, but there was no way I was giving up this opportunity. So I put on my converse trainers, ripped shorts and crop top, and strutted up and down my decking as slowly and as cyberneticly as I could.
Unfortunately my Grandpa, who was on holiday with us, kept going past on his electric scooter, as did groups of beach goers with surfboards and parasols, and it was literally the worst self tape I think I’ve ever tried to film. But with my brother’s help, holding back the holiday makers on the road, I managed to get something in:
It was awful, but it was in. I knew I had zero hope of getting the job, so back to the beach I went. But then the impossible happened… my agency emailed: You got the job, you’re booked for London Fashion Week! I couldn’t believe it! London Fashion Week! THE LONDON FASHION WEEK 2025!
I then had a sudden panic, what if this year’s show used a similar style of slow music? Walking super slowly as an amputee is one of the hardest things to do because the microprocessor knee on my prosthetic leg is a computer and it figures out how to move once you get into a rhythm – it can tell if you’re walking up hill, down hill, fast or slow and it behaves appropriately giving more or less resistance for the task in hand… but when you’re walking super slowly it gets confused. My friend Rebecca and I laughed about it in a podcast last year:
So when I headed to London for a fitting, one of the first questions – after all of my thanks and excitement and appreciation about being selected – was: “Is the runway music fast or slow?” – “Super slow,” was the reply. I kept my cool, if the shoes were flat I’d be fine. Designer Hengdi Wang then brings out the shoes:
Well, I’m definitely someone who likes a challenge in life, and I think my past horror has proved I am pretty good at rising to a challenge… but this was going to be something else! I left the London fittings and headed straight home. I had a plan. I’d make my own shoes of a similar shape so I could practice. Now, it turns out I am no Hengdi Wang, in fact I’m not sure my design would pass health and safety… but it worked!!!!
Excitement mounted as I attended makeup trials and met some of the other models… and remember, I’m 5ft 10, so as you can see, model Nyuon is sky high!
Different make up looks were trialed and it made me smile every time I looked on the design board and saw my outfit design alongside the picture of me from my camping holiday – I was never going to escape that self tape!
Then the day arrived. AND I DID IT! Guys, I walked LONDON FASHION WEEK! I walked for the absolute best designer, Hengdi Wang. I did it!
It really was one of the most intense experiences of my life… and as you know, I’ve had some pretty intense experiences! But this was magically intense, it was as if there were sparks in the air all afternoon and when it came to the show, those sparks ignited into fireworks that pulsed through our very souls. Fashion journalists have described it much better than I have, with the show gaining a lot of press. My shoes in particular got a lot of attention!
My BTS reel gives a feel of what a massive production it was. I met such incredible people like Lan Nguyen-Grealis the multi-award winning make-up artist and Johanna Cree Brown creative director for Trevor Sorbie. Total superstars working on my hair and makeup. Everyone was lovely and I was made to feel so welcome and a true member of the team.
I came away from the event (after the cool cool cool after party) knowing that this is what I want to do. I remember Coco Rocha saying to me “there’s no money in runway, you do it for the thrill of it,” and it certainly was a thrill. I loved every single element of the process.
And maybe there’s some part of me, having lost my leg and being faced with the prospect of never walking again, that wants to show the world that I can walk, and I can walk super slowly (and super fast on other runways and down mega stairs on others) and in massive heels too! I guess whenever I’m told ‘it might be too hard’ or ‘you can’t’… I choose to say: “Just watch me.”
There were so many sensational photos from the show, but here are a few of my favourites:
I was so honoured to walk the show and I want to say a massive thank you to everyone involved. I had the time of my life. Thank you for including me.
Tunisia
Annabel’s Amputee Assessment: 5 Star
What a find! This hotel ticks all of the boxes for amputees, and anyone who simply wants a gorgeous 5 star experience!
Back in 2019, when I had two legs, my Grandpa took all 14 members of our family on holiday to Turkey to celebrate his 70th birthday:
Well, a lot’s happened since then, but we’re still a family of 14 and we still have birthdays to celebrate, so this year my Grandpa wanted to take us all away for his 75th!
We needed to find a hotel that worked for us all. I have one leg, my Grandma’s had a knee replacement, my Grandpa needs a knee replacement and my Aunties and Uncles just like to lie around on the beach. So, we settled on the Kuriat Palace in Tunisia… but settling was something it wasn’t! The hotel was truly fabulous! Real 5 star treatment from the moment we arrived, greeted with flowers for our hair and delicious cocktails.
The room I was given couldn’t have been better – all organised in advance with the hotel who are brilliant at replying to emails. I happened to be part of an Ottobock campaign over the summer called the ‘invisible class’ where we share our holiday hacks to make travelling easier and this video highlights just how great my room was:
As you can see, hardly any walking was involved at all! I am, however, a really active amputee and the hotel didn’t disappoint. For people looking for a bit more adventure than just lounging by the pool, there’s Jet Skis, Flying Fish, and Banana Boats right on the beach which is literally the other side of the pool.
I would also highly recommend the Quad Biking, organised by the hotel. There are no foot pedals involved, you accelerate and brake on the handle bars so it’s a perfect high-adrenaline day for amputees. My mum, social media manager, and world’s best ‘momager‘, who makes most of my content, also makes our family films and has done since I was born. So here’s the Quadding section from film number 92-Tunisia’25!
It’s really reasonably priced and about 25 minutes from the hotel with drinks available in the shade afterwards. Honestly it was so much fun and I’d have gone back and done it again if it wasn’t for all of the other fun stuff going on. Another highly recommended trip would be the snorkelling, a short boat ride from the marina.
Again, very reasonably priced. There were also camels to ride, slides to have fun on, foam parties to enjoy. It really was a hotel for everyone.
I can’t recommend Kuriat Palace enough! The food is excellent. The entertainment is great. It’s just a perfect, easy-access hotel for amputees, but there’s also tons of fun for the adrenaline junkies. 5 stars all around!
The most famous page in publishing!
I was in the middle of sitting my GCSEs when the email came in from the Lifestyle Editor of Country Life Magazine inviting me to star on their frontispiece. It detailed how the frontispiece was the first page of the magazine and one of the most prestigious pages in British publishing.
One of the most prestigious pages in British publishing.
The email shared how the likes of the late Queen Elizabeth and Daphne du Maurier had featured and how the page consisted of a single photograph, chosen by the editor from a collection taken by one of their commissioned photographers. This article wonderfully details how it was initially conceived to portray members of the aristocracy and introduce young women into Society: 12 Famous Frontispieces.
The email finished with the words: “I could think of no one I’d rather have gracing our pages.”
I could think of no one I’d rather have gracing our pages.
The GCSE revision stopped immediately! I phoned my Grandma who lives in a village where everyone has a Country Life Magazine subscription and that’s where the excitement really began! The shoot was booked in for June 17th, the day after my final GCSE exam – physics! What a way to start my summer!
The incredible Anya Campbell was the commissioned photographer and she was just wonderful. We shot a variety of looks in different locations, and it was very relaxed and natural, a far cry from my usual sultry and edgy modelling photography, with Anya having to shout on numerous occasions: “too sexy!” It was so much fun and I now have some lovely smiley images to add to my portfolio.
My feature appeared in the September 3rd edition 2025 and I obviously went straight out and bought loads of copies:
The photograph that was chosen for the frontispiece was just gorgeous. It literally looks like a painting:
The whole experience has just been magical and I am so proud and honoured to be part of such magnificent history.
…and for anyone wondering how I got on with my GCSEs:
Green runs are not green runs!
On my quest to re-learn to ski after losing my left leg, I’ve been searching for the perfect resort with gentle green and blue runs. A resort where I can grow my confidence and enjoy the snow without fear of falling. Well, I can categorically say: Alpe d’Huez is not for beginners!!!
On paper it looks perfect, hence the reason I booked the resort. There are allegedly 41 green and 34 blue runs:
Now I’m pretty proud that I’m back to a fairly good standard of skiing… but the majority of these ‘green runs’ are more like red runs and I didn’t find red runs enjoyable when I had two legs, let alone one! There are no cliff edges as such, so there was no fear of my prosthetic leg failing to turn and me falling off the mountain, but the slopes were steep… really steep… all of them!
I chose to stay at the Hôtel au Chamois d’Or – a gorgeous 5 star spa hotel right at the base of all the green runs. The views were magnificent and I’d definitely recommend the hotel if you need easy access to the slopes.
After a first morning of being totally petrified on Chez Roger – an allegedly fun ‘green run’ – I headed onto the ‘scare chair’ – the Alpuaris chairlift and then the Auris charlift over to Auris En Oisins.
Here I found an actual green run and a genuinely fun Woodcutter run with tunnels to whizz through and bells to ring. Having learnt to ski originally from age 3-10 in Morzine, this area was exactly how I’d describe ‘green runs’ – gentle, safe and fun. Morzine has the Penguin run and the Milka run and the Indian run and this is how I expected Alpe d’Huez to be – full of fun family runs… but it’s not. It’s full of red runs labelled as green!
Anyway, as my confidence grew over at Auris En Oisins, I attempted more of the ‘green runs’ in the main resort in the afternoons and although I didn’t really enjoy them, I mastered them. There are tons of black runs – all of which my brother tried, including The Tunnel – Europe’s steepest run and the Sarennes – the worlds longest black run. But I was proud to simply have completed Chez Roger without having a full-on panic attack!
Maybe Alpe d’Huez was the right choice to progress me on my skiing journey. It certainly pushed me out of my comfort zone and my skiing definitely improved.
What I did like about the resort were the other fun activities you could take part in. The toboggan run was absolutely brilliant:
As was the sledging trail:
Another cool addition were the mini gondolas that moved you around the resort:
Overall I had a really great ski trip, but ideally I want runs where I can just get my skis together and whizz without fear of falling.
I am never going to be the best at parallel turns, my leg won’t allow it, and the steeper the slope, the sharper your turns need to be.
So for now my quest for the perfect ski resort continues.
This is the biggest honour of my life to date. On the evening of Thursday 20th March I was awarded the Champion of Change Trophy at the Smiley Movement Charity Film Awards.
The Smiley Champion of Change Award recognises individuals making a significant positive impact in their work, particularly those who champion positive change and solutions… and this is what Nicolas Loufrani, CEO of the Smiley Company, said about me:
It feels really hard to try and put into words what Nicolas’ speech and the whole evening meant to me. My life has been really tough for the past few years but I’ve never moaned or let it get me down and I’ve just tried to make the best out of my situation and help others who might also find themselves struggling a bit. Maybe this slightly tearful interview I did when I came off stage will explain it better:
The evening was so much fun and I experienced a real full-circle moment with Ekin-Su:
But the true stars of the night were the charities who make so much more important change than I do. It was just wonderful to be surrounded by such positivity, optimism and light. You can read all about the evening here.
I put together a short reel of my highlights, but nothing will ever properly convey just how magical the night was for me and how honoured and humbled I feel:
Thank you so much to Nicolas and Franklin Loufrani and the whole team at The Smiley Movement , you’re the true champions of change.
I look forward to working with The Smiley Movement lots more in the future. Please read our latest piece here.
Miss England Semi-Finals here I come!
Well, this was a surprise! In this next installment of my crazy life, I’ll explain how I’ve suddenly found myself in the Miss England Semi-Finals!
Back in December I went to the London Model Academy Christmas Party. It was so much fun and simply a chance to catch up with friends and network.
Little did I know, there was a photographer there from Fab UK Magazine and the CEO himself Cem Kaplan. He was featuring the party in the Jan 2025 issue of the magazine so there was the option to pose with some gifts from the party sponsor…. I obviously jumped at the chance and that’s when Cem watched me model and subsequently told me he just knew!
In fact his exact words in a message that followed in January were: “What really stuck with me was how you posed, it was amazing. The confidence, the outfit, the hairstyle, the way you looked at the camera, it was just spot on. In that moment, I thought: she’s the one!”
What really stuck with me was how you posed, it was amazing. The confidence, the outfit, the hairstyle, the way you looked at the camera, it was just spot on. In that moment, I thought: she’s the one!
So he entered the photograph that was taken that evening into the Fab UK Magazine Top Model Competition and out of the 156 entries – 106 applied online and 50 were photographer’s own picks – the panel of judges decided that I was their Top Model for 2025!
And as if that wasn’t crazy enough I then get a message to come to an event in Covent Garden. Being Fab Magazine’s Top Model of The Year gives me a free pass into the Miss England Semi Finals!
Like what?! Seriously! What is my life! The press got hold of the story and it was featured absolutely everywhere:
I’ll be totally honest, I didn’t really know much about the Miss England Competition and on first glance it seemed very different to the editorial style edgy modelling that I love to do:
But, on meeting Milla Magee, the stunning and beautifully kind, current Miss England, I’ve learnt that the contest is absolutely something I want to get involved with. Miss England is all about ‘Beauty With a Purpose.’ Milla’s Beauty with a Purpose project is called #GoFarwithCPR where she has been spreading awareness and teaching life-saving Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) skills. She has taught CPR in many schools and is campaigning to make it compulsory in the education curriculum. Wow! Even if I can just raise awareness about what a positive impact the Miss England Competition has then I’ll be happy.
But let’s be honest now… Am I pretty enough to become Miss England? No. Am I glamorous enough to become Miss England? No. I can’t hide it. I’m part robot. I have a prosthetic leg. And with just 3 out of 4 limbs I’m very clearly missing something! But maybe, just maybe, I make up for it in spirit, and determination, and grit, and resolve. I certainly have more of a purpose to my life now… so what if my uniqueness sets me apart?
I very much doubt I’ll make it through to the Final, but I’m going to give it my best shot and I’m sure it’s going to be tons of fun.
Am I scared about the competition? No, not at all. Once you’ve survived something like osteosarcoma, nothing scares you anymore. So Miss England, I’m coming for you. And Cem and all at Fab UK Magazine, thank you so much for believing in me. Let’s start an Inclusion Revolution!
POST UPDATE:
Due to the front-page scandal involving Milla and the Miss England controversy at Miss World, I have decided not to stay in the competition. I thank Milla for all the support she has given me and I wish her the very best.
