Amputee Natalie Palace //free\\ Jun 2026

Before the accident that changed everything, Natalie Palace described herself as "a girl who never sat still." Growing up in the suburbs of the Pacific Northwest, she was a competitive swimmer and an avid hiker. Her friends recall a woman defined by her physicality—long runs on the weekends, spontaneous dance parties in her living room, and a career in physical therapy assisting that kept her on her feet for ten hours a day.

One Tuesday, a young girl named Maya arrived at the Palace. Maya had recently undergone an amputation similar to Natalie’s and was hiding her new prosthetic behind baggy, oversized sweatpants. She looked at Natalie’s exposed blade—decorated with vibrant sunflower decals—with a mixture of awe and fear. "Is it heavy?" Maya whispered. Amputee Natalie Palace

Natalie Palace lost her left leg just below the knee when she was nineteen, the result of a hit-and-run that she refused to let define her. Now, ten years later, she sat at her workbench, the carbon-fiber curve of her running blade catching the afternoon light. Before the accident that changed everything, Natalie Palace