The girl with the hero arm

For most of her life, Nicola Berry has been known as the ‘girl with one arm’. Now the 28 year old NHS ward clerk from Chulmleigh has raised thousands of pounds for a revolutionary new bionic hand that she hopes will transform her life.

“At work people would say ‘do you know Nicola?’ and when they said no, they would say she’s the girl with one arm, and then they’d instantly know who I am!” explained Nicola. “I don’t want to be known as that anymore. If I am going to be referred to by the fact that I have a limb difference I would love to be known as the girl with ‘The Hero Arm’.”

The Hero Arm she’s referring to is the world’s most affordable multi-grip bionic arm (below), manufactured using innovative 3D-scanning and 3D-printing by a company called Open Bionics in Bristol. Not available on the NHS, similar devices would cost £60,000 - the Hero Arm is just under £10,000. Each one is designed specially for the person who needs it.

Nicola (pictured right) was born with one hand. She started a Crowdfunding campaign which raised £3,849, she got a £1,000 grant from the Douglas Bader Foundation and £4,849 from the charity Open Bionics Foundation, set up to help people afford to buy the prosthetic arms.

She is dedicated to her job with the NHS, working as a ward clerk in the busy orthopaedics department at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.

“I’m so glad I finally plucked up the courage to do it,” Nicola told Molton Monthly. “My neighbour convinced me in the end.”

“Now that I am an adult I can’t wait to be able to do all of the little things in life that I haven’t been able to do, or ever believe was possible for me to do on my own.”

You can follow Nicola’s progress on her Facebook page: facebook.com/TheGirlWithTheHeroArm/

NHS ward clerk Nicola Berry