BELMAR — The fitness community in Belmar is banding together to help raise funds for a new prosthetic leg for a local resident, thanks to a GoFundMe campaign and an upcoming fitness fundraising event next month.
AmyMarie “Luca” DeLuca, 41, is a Belmar resident who was born without certain bones in her foot, which prompted doctors to remove her leg below the knee to allow for a prosthetic.
Over the years growing up as an amputee, Ms. DeLuca’s prosthetic grew and updated with her; however her current prosthetic, which she estimated is about a decade old, has become damaged and is in need of replacement.
“I actually broke this one and didn’t even realize it. Who knew you could snap carbon?” she told The Coast Star.
Ms. DeLuca began trying to exercise more in 2021, however found that many gyms and trainers were ill-equipped to work with people with prosthetics. About six months ago, a friend in the community was able to steer her toward AMP’D Fitness, owned by fellow amputee Max Gomez.
“I’ve worked with a few trainers … that will just skip over things because they just don’t understand, and Max is the first person that has given me his time and shown me alternatives so that I’m still included in what everyone else is doing, it’s not just taking money from me like everyone else has done,” she said.
“No one has ever understood me,” she said. “Max is right [leg amputee] and I’m left, so it’s all very similar.”
Mr. Gomez, 29, is a fellow Belmar resident who became a below-the-knee amputee on his right leg after a motocross accident at 18 years old landed him in the hospital.
“It was a freak accident, not something that would typically happen to somebody that rides a bike … I had some complications [in the hospital], one thing led to another and after a couple weeks [they amputated],” he said.
After adjusting to his own prosthetic, Mr. Gomez raced again for several years until turning his attention to his new endeavor of opening up his own gym. He said he put “everything” into the gym to expand on his dreams of once being a physical therapist after having a passion for exercising from a young age.
Ms. DeLuca said that she previously never exercised, but found that working out has helped to improve her life not only physically but mentally. She said that training with Mr. Gomez, a fellow leg amputee, has allowed her a new feeling of being included in workout classes.
“I feel good,” she said. “I have a lot more energy. It motivates me when I go home to not just be a slug. I feel less lazy.”
However, after half a year of training with Mr. Gomez at his gym, Ms. DeLuca told him that she would have to stop attending to focus her finances on getting a new prosthetic.
To this, Mr. Gomez said he would compensate the costs for her membership and even campaign fundraising efforts to help her get the new leg that she deserves.
“When she told me … I [told her] don’t stop coming to the gym. I can comp your membership, that’s never a problem,” he said. “Then I started thinking about it, how cool would it be to try to put a fundraiser together?”
When talking about the success of the fundraising efforts so far, Ms. DeLuca was choked up with emotion.
“I feel so blessed, I almost feel undeserving. It’s an overwhelming gratitude, all these people who have helped me so far, all the encouragement, all the love and all the support,” she said.
“I couldn’t be more thankful for my friend that introduced me to him,” Ms. DeLuca said. “I can say over and over, no one has understood me like Max does. I’m really grateful.”
More information about fundraising efforts can be found at gofundme.com/f/Lucas-leg.
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