Donna R. Walton, Ed.D. has walked the walk of a cancer survivor for upwards of 12,000 days. 

In January 1976, at the age of 18, Walton’s life was transformed as she boarded a Washington, D.C. transit bus and her cancer-ridden left femur bone snapped in half. The prognosis: the young college student and aspiring performer would have to lose her left leg to an above-the-knee amputation.

After receiving several chemotherapy treatments, however, Walton made a life-or-death decision to stop receiving the 18-month protocol of treatments.  Doctors predicated that she was signing her own death certificate.

Surviving Cancer, Starting a Career
Undeterred, Walton concluded that even though she had absolutely no control over her DNA, she could choose to pursue degrees (BA, MS, and Ed.D.) in higher learning that would eventually enable her to create a career based on motivating, training, and empowering others with disabilities who would face similar challenges in their lives.

Miraculously, it’s been over 30 years since amputating her leg, three decades during which Walton has attained both personal and professional success as she triumphed over her own fears of deficiency and society’s perception of people with disabilities.

Lessons of Empowerment for People with Disabilities, Others
One measure of that success was Walton’s creation of Dream Reach Win, a company that provided disability awareness and diversity training to government agencies and various corporations.  She has now transformed Dream Reach Win into her present venture, LEGGTalk, Inc. (Lessons of Empowerment for Achieving Goals and Greatness), a company that works to help people achieve their vision of success despite their circumstances.

Consultant and motivational speaker Walton works hard to model the behavior she often quotes to audiences: “If you want something in your life that you’ve never had, then you have to do something you’ve never done.” A certified cognitive behavioral therapist, Walton feels that motivation comes from talking about what’s holding you back, preventing you from living your dreams.

The Amputee Advantage
Does she feel that being an amputee has held her back? To the contrary, Walton feels her stature is enhanced by the fact that she is an amputee, because it so clearly signals battles fought and won. “In spite of living with one leg,” Walton says, “I learned that I didn’t have to simply survive – if I had the will to thrive.”

Walton has made presentations to organizations such as the United States Army, the Equal Opportunity Office, and Ball State University. Articles by or about Dr. Walton have been published in numerous publications, including Disability Quarterly and InMotion Magazine. And how does this cancer survivor feel about her amputation these days? “It’s my mindset,” she says, “that I still have two legs; it’s just that you can’t see one of them.”