Burnell was born with her right arm ending slightly below the elbow. Burnell's parents encouraged her to wear a prosthetic arm, but she resisted from the start, and stopped wearing one entirely when she was nine. She says her disability did not hinder her from doing what she wanted, including "sports, swimming, windsurfing, singing in the choir or joining the Army cadets." As a teenager, she worked as a hotel chambermaid during summers, and travelled widely, working in a leprosy clinic in India, and volunteering in Brazil.
Cerrie Burnell graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University, where she studied acting. She has performed in theatre in the UK, where she received favorable reviews, and in Brazil with the CTORio Political Theatre Company. She has appeared in UK television parts in Holby City, EastEnders, Grange Hill, The Bill, and Comedy Lab. She is the author of Winged - A Fairytale, a play about Violet, a one-winged fairy in a London inner city fairy community, which she also starred in when it was staged at the Tristan Bates Theatre, London in 2007.
Besides acting, she has worked as a teaching assistant in a special needs school.
Ruth Bachman, with her grand-daughter, describes herself as a "right-handed woman, wife, mother and grandmother in apparent good health."
"I didn't have time to," she said. "I had too much work to do, starting with teaching myself how to write again."
She also had to relearn how to use computer keyboards designed for two hands. She's able to reach all the keys with a minimum amount of movement. "Fortunately, I have big hands," she said. She paused before adding with a chuckle, "I mean, big hand."
She intends to use that hand to raise $1 million for cancer research. She has become an inspirational speaker and is donating 100 percent of the money she collects.
"So far, I've spoken mostly at churches," which don't tend to have a lot money for speaking fees, she said. "So it might take a while to get to $1 million."
But she's determined to make it, the same way she was determined that losing her left hand -- she was a lefty -- wouldn't slow her down.
"I've made this a mission," she said of her fund-raising. "Every day, I do something toward making this a reality."
Her ability to make a humorous reference to being one-handed is proof of her attitude. Her first instinct upon being told that she'd lose the hand was to "wish the cancer had been any place else, because then I could hide it," she said. "But I can't hide the fact that I don't have a hand. Everybody sees it right away, so I have no choice but to deal with it."
Bachman, 61, -- part of the flower family -- realized that having people ask about the missing hand was an opportunity to broaden the discussion.
"Talking about it gives me the chance to create a healing community," she said.
"There are numerous women and girls who are physically different from others. Of course they face some difficulties doing their daily life because of their disabilities. However a lot of them can make it well, look fashionable, keep in high spirits, full of hope and optimism, hi confident against their challenges. Imagine that you were one them, and please say what your feeling." - Hillary
While we were in Africa I became acquainted with a young woman who had a transverse limb reduction defect. I admired her courage as she participated on the swim team and used humor and wit to answer the sometimes too curious comments of her peers. I often thought of my little neice, Bella, as I watched this vibrant confident teenage girl tackle the day to day tasks of becoming a woman. Knowing her made me feel happiness and hope for Bella's future and all her potential.
I hope as we search for role models for our daughters we will seek out women of dignity and grace. Women who respect themselves and their abilities. Women who will resist the temptation to exploit their physical beauty or sexual allure for attention. Women who will rely on their intellect, creativity and unique voice to make themselves heard and rise like a Pheonix with strength and beauty. These are the qualities I want my daughters and little girls I love to admire and aspire to. These are the qualities that will inspire others to follow our daughters to make a world of compassion and opportunity for all.
