Welcome back! I hope you all had a peaceful Christmas season and a good start into the new year. I hope 2018 will be an amazing year for you. A rewarding year, a year to try out something new, a year full of mindboggling adventures.

 

 

The Active Amputee took a month off and this is the first post in the new year. And I am back with plenty of new ideas to keep The Active Amputee interesting, informative and fun to read.

 

As you might remember I ran a little survey towards the end of last year. The first one of its kind on the page. And it was quite exciting to see the results coming in; the first ones within minutes after I published the post and had the link up on Instagram and co.

 

First of all I would like to thank all people who took the time to get back to me. Your answers were immensely helpful for me to better understand your interests and needs. What I learned will help me to create more valuable content for the blog. But before I tell you more about my ideas for the coming year, let me share some of the data with you.

 

According to the survey, more than 70% of the readers of The Active Amputee are amputees themselves (and almost all of them are lower limb amputees). With an additional 12% having a person with a limb difference in the family or among close friends. Readers spilt more or less evenly between women and men and cover a wide age range. That is really nice to see.

 

The five best-liked articles in 2017 were:

• Flying as an amputee
• Articles about socket fit and socket comfort
• Articles about outdoor activities, climbing, hiking
• 15 amazing amputee Instagram accounts
• Being an amputee dad is cool

 

And that bring us right away to the type of information you would like to see on The Active Amputee in the future.

• Almost all people said that they hope to see more personal stories from people with limb differences. Stories that allow other amputees to see that they are not alone. Stories that inform, motive, inspire and encourage.
• A close runner up to the top post, so to speak, was an interest in life-hacks and hands-on advice to master day to day challenges.
• Followed by information about new developments in the prosthetic sector.
• And information about support organisations and special services for amputees and people with disabilities in forth place.

 

 

A nice surprise were the answers to the last question of the survey. Two thirds of the participants said they they would like to contribute a blogpost or interview to the Active Amputee. Wow, that came as a nice - and partly unexpected - surprise. Thank you so much. I will get back to all of you over the coming weeks to discuss the details. And I am really looking forward to these collaborations in the new year.

 

Earlier on I said that I used the Christmas the break and the data from survey to develop some new ideas for The Active Amputee. So what can you expect over the coming months.

• I will continue sharing more personal stories from all around the globe. There are so many inspiring people out there who have amazing stories to tell. And many are willing to share their story on The Active Amputee.
• I will showcase a variety of sports and outdoor activities (aiming to present not only the activities I am active in), including ways of how to get started with them.
• I will start a YouTube channel later this year, mainly for life-hacks and the like. But you still have to be patient for a while as this is likely to be after Easter.
• Last but not least, I have started discussion with Prosthetists and other professionals to explore possible cooperations around informing amputees and their families about new developments in the prosthetic sector. While we are still in the early stages, I am optimistic it will lead to more valuable content for the blog.

 

I hope you are as excited about these new developments as I am. If you want to make sure you are not missing any of the new posts, sign up the my newsletter. No spam! Promise!

 

 

Okay, so much for today. Have a nice Sunday and a good start into the new week.