KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Local nonprofit, Steps of Faith Foundation is helping hundreds of people in Kansas City and across the nation get a prosthetic limb when they overwise couldn't afford it.
“The only last thing I remember is leaving the house and getting gas and heading on the highway. That’s it," Joseph Lastr III of Kansas City said.
In September 2019, the then 18-year-old had his whole world changed in a second.
“I woke up in the hospital. They said my tire had popped and I had slid into a pole," Lastr said.
He ended up in the hospital with two broken legs. One of them got so badly infected that doctors gave him a life-altering decision.
"There were two chances I could take. I could keep it and it could mess up your kidneys and have your kidneys start getting infected also. It could end up killing you. You could get an amputation, which I did," Lastr said.
Photos, provided by Jason Domingues, show Lastr trying on his new leg at the beginning of a whole new path.
But, it came with a big price tag.
Lastr didn’t have insurance at the time. So, to get a prosthetic leg, it was going to cost tens of thousands of dollars.
It was something he and his family didn’t have. His mom searched everywhere for help and that’s where she found Steps of Faith Foundation.
“It is literally helping people get back on their feet and walk again," Billy Brimblecom, Jr., Executive Director of Steps of Faith Foundation, said.
Brimblecom knows how Lastr feels, as he himself lost part of his leg to cancer and needed to raise $30,000 to be able to walk again with a prosthetic.
“I had the same health insurance plan since I was in high school. I was 28 at the time I lost my leg but at that time, they deemed the leg I needed which is a microprocessor knee. It’s a computerized knee as new and expensive technology and they were only going to pay for half, which is ridiculous," Brimblecom said.
Steps of Faith Foundation is only able to help so many people because of fundraisers like Thundergong, a charity concert that is usually held at the Uptown Theater and is hosted by Brimblecom's friend, Jason Sudeikis.
Thundergong for 2021 will be livestreamed Saturday at 7 p.m.
They money raised has helped hundreds of people like Lastr reclaim their lives and put one foot in front of the other.
"You just gotta believe and just reach out to people because someone is really out there waiting on them to help you," Lastr said.
