While preparing for the first year examinations of B.Tech Mechanical Engineering, Sajesh Krishnan faced the toughest ordeal of his life. His world turned upside down when he met with an accident and his left leg had to be amputated below knee. At the mere age of 18, he had to go through a turmoil, thinking of which send shivers down the spine. But he never lost his self confidence. He decided to fight back.
He came in contact with a group of amputees, “The Challenging Ones” which is led by Major DP Singh, who himself became an amputee after getting grievously injured in the Kargil war. He was so inspired by the members of TCO, that 10 years after his amputation, he participated in a marathon. Since then, there has been no looking back. In the year 2016, he read about the Spice Coast Marathon in the group’s FB page and whatsapp group which was to be held in Kochi. For the next 20 days, he ran 3 km every night for practice. As a result he successfully completed 5 km in only 46 minutes and also became the only amputee marathoner from Kerala.
The successful start boosted his morale and he regularly started participating in marathons. Later he was gifted a blade, worth 4-5 lakhs, from the Vascular Society of India. The society organized a mini marathon, “Run for your Legs”, which was a part of the national conference that aimed at creating awareness about vascular diseases and how to prevent amputations. Sajesh too became a part of this marathon and on receiving the blade, he shared, “It is indeed a very big privilege that I have got. Now I can become a professional runner and participate in every event coming up.” Sajesh keeps posting his videos in the Challengers’ group to inspire others to come out of their shell.
Sajesh feels what keeps amputees away from such events is the lack of trainers and the high price of the blade, which many cannot afford. But he has never stopped himself from dreaming big. He wishes to participate in the paralympics, but hailing from a middle class family, this dream of his is still unaffordable. Though his family has been his pillar of strength always. Therefore, he is a professional medical gas pipe-line engineer and had also served as a tutor at the government ITI for 2 years.
Team SwachhAbility appreciates his will power and wishes for him a life full of achievements and happiness.
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