An Essex builder who lost his leg due to cancer has inspired thousands of people after posting cheerful dance videos on TikTok, Essex Live reported. Jack Wells, 32, has successfully fought cancer twice, causing his leg to be amputated. Although The Canvey Island native needs a prosthetic left leg while working on the construction site, he primarily "hopples around" at home and shares this with his 250,000 followers. Jack was first diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of seven and underwent chemotherapy, full-body radiotherapy, and a bone marrow donation from his brother. He appeared to be in remission until a biopsy of tissue obtained from his sore left knee at the age of 28 revealed he had cancer once more. Since it was the quickest and simplest approach to get rid of cancer this time, all but four inches of Jack's leg was amputated in January 2019. Wells said: “It was definitely worse the second time around. I was a lot more aware of what was going on.” He added: “When I was seven and had the leukaemia, my parents took on the role of listening to the doctors and kind of fed back information to me. Whereas obviously, once you’re an adult, you have to take on that information and make the decisions for yourself. Mentally, to get your head around it – it was a lot harder.” However, Jack's strongest feeling was relief when he learned he would lose his limb. He said: “By that point, the cancer had spread up my leg more, hence why I’m now left with not much more than a stump. Before they told me, I already had a gut feeling that that’s what is going to happen, so I was more relieved than anything. I was so ready to just eliminate the pain.” Six weeks after the amputation at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Middlesex, Jack got his first prosthetic leg fitted. “I didn’t really know what to think and I struggled more with the physical appearance to start with. “When I first saw myself in the mirror, it was quite a shock to the system of what was looking back at me, it wasn’t a bad image, but you were used to seeing yourself with two legs rather than one.” But Jack didn’t dwell for long. “I was out of bed quickly, trying to walk again, so there was always a lot going on to keep my mind occupied,” he said. By June 2019, Jack was walking again unaided. Soon after, in August 2019, he went back to work as a general builder, doing domestic property extensions – a job he had been doing since he was 16. Jack said: “At work, I’ve been really fortunate that they were very accommodating. The idea originally was for me to go more into an office role, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do – soon after, it was very hands-on again.” He added: “It’s all domestic stuff we do, so we work on people’s houses, rather than actual building sites.” At work, he found it “quite awkward” to get in certain positions like kneeling down for long periods of time, or carrying building materials while walking on crutches with one leg. Hence, he decided to use his prosthetic leg during his 8.5-hour shifts from Monday to Friday. But at home he found it better to take it off and “hop around”, use crutches sometimes to move from room to room, and go up and down stairs on his bum. “I find it a lot easier to do things for a longer period of time without the leg on, as it’s quite tiring to wear it. So usually when I take my shoes off, I take the leg off as well,” he said. During the first lockdown, Jack and Jessica, who he has been married to for nine years, discovered TikTok and enjoyed watching videos together while shielding at home. And when wife Jessica filmed Jack doing a 15-second TikTok dance to Blinding Lights by The Weekend, the video got over half a million views within a day. Jack said: “It made me feel good, getting that sort of level of likes and all that comes along with it, like a lot of positive comments. People said ‘this is incredible’ and ‘well done’.” For the next two years, Jack, known as 1legdancer123 on TikTok, mainly posted dance videos and, as well as giving himself lots of enjoyment, he realised he was spreading hope to others. “The longer I did it, I slowly was getting messages from other amputees that have lost a limb or some that were due to lose a limb, who were finding some form of comfort and advice through talking to me,” he reflected. “I realised I can actually make a real difference with my TikTok account. I seem to be putting a positive spin on it for a lot of people.” Earlier this year he decided to start uploading snippets from his daily life too, filming himself digging holes and sharing a video compilation of pictures showing his recovery. He said: “The amputation hasn’t altered my life that much, not as much as some people might think.
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