Hundreds of amputees as well as people with disabilities in Canterbury, are set to benefit from a new state-of-the-art artificial limb centre.
Prosthetics will be manufactured on-site at the facility.
Nine-year-old patient Aubrey Winter has been a regular at the artificial limb centre in Christchurch for most of his life.
"In soccer I like juggling the ball and kicking it through peoples legs and and getting goals and kicking it around," Aubrey told 1News.
Aubrey’s mum Krystle explained that nothing slowed him down, despite losing his leg.
"He was born with a condition called Fibular Hemimelia, which means he was born without one of the bones in his lower leg.
"It did also mean that he was missing a few other bones, so for him it did mean that it was going to work out better if the foot was amputated so that a prosthetic could be made."
Today, with a $6 million government investment, Aubrey officially opened the centre’s new state-of-the-art building that will support over 600 amputees and nearly 3000 people with disabilities.
Disability issues minister Priyanca Radhakrishnan said the previous facility that they had here was really cold and dated.
"It wasn’t fit for purpose as the lack of tech advancements meant people were typically spending a whole day here just to get what they needed, now they spend about 90 minutes."
Craig Harrington, from the artificial limb centre, became an amputee 33 years ago and said attitudes have "vastly changed".
"There was no peer support, there was no physio, and any post-fitting follow-up care went out the door.
"It’s come so far that the covers have gone and people want fancy feet and technology and now we’ve got sockets that are celebrating peoples interests."
Aubrey knows what kind of leg he wants.
"Fire, like orange fire," he said.
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