I had the absolute pleasure of catching up with Angela Catterns on ABC North Coast today to talk about The Limb Shift. I’ve known Ange for over two decades, so when she reached out to chat about the podcast, it was an easy yes. She is such an empathetic presenter who genuinely listens and engages with her guests.
You can listen to the full audio below, along with a short overview of the podcast, which launches as part of Amputee Awareness Week.
When most Australians picture an amputee, they likely imagine a survivor of a dramatic shark attack, a severe high-speed car crash, or perhaps an elite athlete competing at the Paralympics. Yet, as ABC broadcaster Angela Catterns recently highlighted in a conversation with her colleague James O’Brien, the everyday reality of limb loss in Australia is vastly different, far more prevalent, and rapidly growing.
“A conservative estimate is that around 150,000 people are amputees, and that figure is forecast to double to over 300,000 by 2050,” Catterns revealed. “8,000 to 14,000 amputations occur each year in Australia. And that’s largely because the leading causes of limb loss include diabetes and vascular disease”.
To bridge the gap between glossy inspirational narratives and the raw, complex reality of losing a limb, O’Brien—himself an amputee—launched a new podcast titled The Limb Shift. As O’Brien explained, “It’s really about the mind shift that people go through when they lose a leg or an arm or all four. So it’s called The Limb Shift, but it’s actually about a mind shift”.
O’Brien’s own journey into the amputee community began unexpectedly during an overseas holiday just over three years ago. “I was walking along the beach and I got a cut foot,” O’Brien recalled. “What I didn’t know is that there were some little bugs in the water… which got inside my skin”.
Upon returning home to Australia, his condition deteriorated rapidly into sepsis—a life-threatening medical emergency caused by the body’s extreme response to an infection. Thinking he merely had COVID-19, O’Brien collapsed alone at home. After concerned friends requested a police welfare check, emergency services forced entry to save his life. Although medical staff saved him after he spent a week and a half in a coma, they were unable to save his right leg.
“Sepsis is the big health issue in Australia—we just don’t hear enough about it,” O’Brien stressed, noting that it accounts for 84,000 hospitalisations and 12,000 deaths annually. “Some people who I’ve spoken to for this podcast have lost their limbs within 24 to 48 hours”.
While recovering in hospital, O’Brien found himself unsatisfied with the resources available to new amputees. Standard medical brochures felt clinical, while popular media tended to focus exclusively on extraordinary feats. “There’s a book about someone who lost their leg and climbed Mount Everest. And I’m going, ‘No, that’s not me either,'” O’Brien said. “I wanted something which was a bit more real and a bit more honest”.
The real turning point came when O’Brien received a phone call from Limbs for Life, a peer support organisation. “A guy from Newcastle who had exactly the same situation as me 12 months earlier… it was a real human voice,” O’Brien shared. Realising there was very little available in terms of authentic, grounded human stories, he decided to create the podcast.
The series consciously avoids getting bogged down in administrative systems like the NDIS or complex prosthetic technology, focusing instead on personal stories. The podcast covers a diverse range of lived experiences.
Actor Adam Bowes was born with a congenital condition lacking tibias and underwent amputations at age two so he could wear prosthetics. Bowes shared the touching dynamic he has with his four-year-old son, Theo: “Theo is such an empathetic child… He’s got a couple of Bluey stickers on my legs because he likes to help me put my suction cups into my legs… He just knows me as me, which is awesome”.
Another guest, commercial flight instructor Nathan Parker, lost his arm in a head-on bus collision while serving as an Air Force cadet. Parker recalled taking off solo again over Lismore after his injury, calling it “a pretty cool and a pretty surreal experience to sort of think back to lying in the hospital bed and thinking that flying was probably off the cards… to then being back up in the air”.
O’Brien and his guests also address phantom limb pain—a common phenomenon where the brain continues to feel a missing limb. “For me, it was 57 years of having a leg to suddenly not having one,” O’Brien explained, remembering how the first time he put on a prosthetic, it felt as though his missing toes were touching the ground. He now uses mindfulness and meditation to manage the ongoing pain.
Beyond physical rehabilitation, the underlying theme of The Limb Shift is the profound internal transformation that accompanies major physical trauma. Guest Kath Tanner lost her leg in a London bus crash while travelling to present her PhD research at an international conference.
“Suddenly I’ve gone, ‘Is this really what I want to do? Is this really important in my life?'” Tanner reflected. “Knowing that I nearly lost my life, I want to spend more time doing things with my kids… and being part of just life and living and my friends… You lose contact with people when you get so absorbed in work, but after my accident, that changed”.
For O’Brien, bringing these authentic narratives to light—complete with shared tears, gallows humour, and practical wisdom—is the heart of the project. The podcast aims to offer real life rather than forced inspiration, showing how people navigate the psychological and emotional reality of limb loss. Listeners can find The Limb Shift on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or directly via thelimbshift.com
