A little boy who lost his foot at 18 months has become a model and now he travels the world posing for famous brands including Primark, Amazon and Schuh.
Arlo Tate, nine, was diagnosed with fibular hemimelia - a missing fibula - at birth.
An "abnormality" was picked up at his 20-week scan - but doctors were unsure what his condition was at the time.
His right foot was bent inwards so doctors suggested his parents allow them amputate his foot so he could learn to walk with a prosthetic leg.
Mum Naomi, 38, says walking with prosthesis was incredibly easy and Arlo hasn't let his disability hold him back.
Naomi says his friends weren’t aware Arlo even had a disability - as he plays football, basketball and rugby with them.
In March 2020, Arlo was scouted by a diverse modelling agency who wanted to sign him up and he has since travelled to Prague, London and Manchester - being paid £500 a shoot for brands like Primark, Amazon and Schuh.
Naomi, a property investment consultant, from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, said: “Arlo has beaten the odds to become a model before he’s even turned 10.
“I thought it was a scam at first - but it’s amazing to see him modelling for all these top brands.
“He gets looked after really well - every job he goes on, it’s all very luxurious.
“We get to take him to toy shops and let him have his pick to spend his wages - and he makes £500 per shoot.
“It doesn’t faze him at all that he’s earning all this money - he just loves sightseeing and making new friends.”
Naomi was told at her 20-week scan that her son would be born with an “abnormality” - despite having a "normal" pregnancy beforehand.
But doctors weren’t exactly sure what the abnormality would be - ONLY KNOWING IT WOULD IMPACT HIS LEG? - and his missing fibula was discovered at birth.
Due to his missing fibula and abnormal tibia - which was bent sideways - Arlo’s right foot curled inwards and he only had three toes.
Naomi said: “It was significantly shorter than his left leg. It would’ve grown, just at a really slow pace.
“I went straight on Facebook to look for other mums going through the same thing, it did make me feel less alone.”
While speaking to the other mums, Naomi began to weigh up her options.
She heard she’d be able to get leg lengthening surgery for Arlo - which is usually an option for patients with a shortened fibula.
But doctors told her it wouldn’t be possible - as they’d be unable to extend or replace bones that weren’t there to begin with.
After 18 months of research, Naomi and Arlo’s care team decided amputation would be the best route.
She said: “We decided the best way would be to amputate his right foot.
“At the beginning, I was really nervous.
“But in the three months before surgery, doctors fitted Arlo with a prosthetic leg, which had a set of five little toes.
“He absolutely loved it. It gave him the flexibility of being able to walk - and he could even put a shoe on it.
“I knew amputation would be th
Arlo Tate, nine, was diagnosed with fibular hemimelia - a missing fibula - at birth.
An "abnormality" was picked up at his 20-week scan - but doctors were unsure what his condition was at the time.
His right foot was bent inwards so doctors suggested his parents allow them amputate his foot so he could learn to walk with a prosthetic leg.
Mum Naomi, 38, says walking with prosthesis was incredibly easy and Arlo hasn't let his disability hold him back.
Naomi says his friends weren’t aware Arlo even had a disability - as he plays football, basketball and rugby with them.
In March 2020, Arlo was scouted by a diverse modelling agency who wanted to sign him up and he has since travelled to Prague, London and Manchester - being paid £500 a shoot for brands like Primark, Amazon and Schuh.
Naomi, a property investment consultant, from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, said: “Arlo has beaten the odds to become a model before he’s even turned 10.
“I thought it was a scam at first - but it’s amazing to see him modelling for all these top brands.
“He gets looked after really well - every job he goes on, it’s all very luxurious.
“We get to take him to toy shops and let him have his pick to spend his wages - and he makes £500 per shoot.
“It doesn’t faze him at all that he’s earning all this money - he just loves sightseeing and making new friends.”
Naomi was told at her 20-week scan that her son would be born with an “abnormality” - despite having a "normal" pregnancy beforehand.
But doctors weren’t exactly sure what the abnormality would be - ONLY KNOWING IT WOULD IMPACT HIS LEG? - and his missing fibula was discovered at birth.
Due to his missing fibula and abnormal tibia - which was bent sideways - Arlo’s right foot curled inwards and he only had three toes.
Naomi said: “It was significantly shorter than his left leg. It would’ve grown, just at a really slow pace.
“I went straight on Facebook to look for other mums going through the same thing, it did make me feel less alone.”
While speaking to the other mums, Naomi began to weigh up her options.
She heard she’d be able to get leg lengthening surgery for Arlo - which is usually an option for patients with a shortened fibula.
But doctors told her it wouldn’t be possible - as they’d be unable to extend or replace bones that weren’t there to begin with.
After 18 months of research, Naomi and Arlo’s care team decided amputation would be the best route.
She said: “We decided the best way would be to amputate his right foot.
“At the beginning, I was really nervous.
“But in the three months before surgery, doctors fitted Arlo with a prosthetic leg, which had a set of five little toes.
“He absolutely loved it. It gave him the flexibility of being able to walk - and he could even put a shoe on it.
“I knew amputation would be th
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00 Hi, I'm Naomi and this is Arlo and he is an amputee model.
00:08 So it was actually my scan, my 20 week scan.
00:11 I was going in purely to find out if it was a boy or girl, but they picked something up
00:16 at the scan.
00:17 We went to Bristol Hospital and yeah, they noticed that he was missing parts of his fibular
00:23 bone.
00:24 We then had monthly scans where additional things were coming up, like he only had three
00:29 toes.
00:30 So that's when I first found out.
00:32 I was, my initial reaction, I was quite shocked because it's not something you normally hear
00:37 on a scan.
00:38 You're just going in for a routine scan.
00:40 And I looked up all those Facebook groups and so I saw that there was loads of mums
00:44 in the same position and their children were just thriving.
00:47 So it put me at kind of ease.
00:50 When he was born, he was born absolutely perfect.
00:54 Perfect blue eyes, cheeky smile.
00:56 And yeah, he was just, the milestones he was doing, he was crawling at, I think it was
01:01 six months.
01:02 He was even walking, even though he had a slight discrepancy of his leg, he was walking
01:10 and he was just doing everything.
01:11 So when we went to the hospital, we spoke about whether lengthening would be a good
01:17 option for his leg or whether he would be better to have an amputation and be fitted
01:22 with a prosthetic leg.
01:24 But with the doctor's advice, they said the best thing to do because of his condition
01:29 and the severity was to amputate it.
01:31 And that was when he was 18 months old.
01:33 So we can't even remember.
01:35 So we went viral on TikTok where we did a prank that was going around in America to
01:41 ask your child to have a fight.
01:44 And he went outside, he didn't have his leg on at the time and he said I would kick them
01:49 and he didn't have his leg on.
01:50 I think it got 4.7 million views and then we got in touch with so many people.
01:56 The agency, Zebedee Talent, actually contacted us and said we'd love to have Arlo on our
02:01 books.
02:02 He's got such a great character, he's so confident and yeah, we think he'd be amazing.
02:06 And then within how many months was it?
02:09 About three months, he had his first job in Prague.
02:12 It was kind of nerve-wracking.
02:14 I mean, I've never gone aboard with a job before.
02:18 I think it was a photo shoot, wasn't it?
02:20 It was Amazon Web Services.
02:23 So we attend the Bristol Enabling Centre.
02:26 They are so amazing.
02:27 We've really got close to them.
02:29 And then he sees the Children's Hospital.
02:32 So he goes and sees, what's his name, Mr McBride at the Children's Hospital.
02:36 We actually saw him this week, didn't we, regarding your knee.
02:38 So he'll always have parts of his condition and parts of his leg where his knee's not
02:42 stable, parts of his hips and his back just with a condition.
02:46 But the team are amazing and every year we get fitted with a new leg.
02:50 But as he grows, he has adapters put in his leg to help with obviously him growing because
02:55 he's so tall.
02:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]