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8 year old Brinae Myvette won over the hearts of Belizeans with her resilient spirit and her love for dancing. At 6 years old, she received an injury on her leg the resulted in its amputation.

But that never stopped Brinae from doing what she loved the most: dancing. And while she adapted to having only one leg, her mother and her grandmother were filling out paper work to get her a prosthetic.

Delva Joseph, Brinae's Mother
"We had to go through a full application process, like 40 pages, get consent, her medical records, all of those. When that was finished, it went through like 3 organizations, because it's something that they have to approve to see if she qualifies to get care from Shriner's so we got accepted in May of 2023."

"On November 13th we travelled to Los Angeles where we stayed at the Ronald McDonald House, it's a house for all Shriner's Patients from all over the world. So we were situated with people from Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, some people from Los Angeles as well and other parts of the US."

"She got the chance to meet other kids like herself, she's very friendly so she made friends very quickly, everyone at the house loved her. When it was time for her to leave, everyone was crying."

Brinae and her mother returned to the country yesterday after months of physical therapy. Joseph said that it wasn't an easy journey:

Delva Joseph, Brinae's Mother
"We had to wait like 3 to 4 weeks before they could have actually made the leg to fit the stump that she had so they had to do a cup, when they did the cup, they had to resize it and then they did the reconstruction of the leg using the cup so it's a cup that she slides the leg into then she has to strap it one and then after the leg was made, she had to do like six weeks of therapy whereby they taught her how to walk with the leg on grass, she had to learn to walk in a straight line, so all of that they did."

"So after she learned to really maneuver herself, that's when they took off the lock and we had to do additional therapy with the knee so she can just walk and if she's gonna sit down, she can just go ahead and put strength on the front of the leg and it automatically just bends."

"With the knee, it became very tedious for her because when she's going fast, she's very active so when she's going fast, once she comes down on her toe rather than on the heel, the knee with automatically bend so we had so many times when it became frustrating because she's going so fast and she doesn't realize that she has to come down on the heel rather than on the toes because when she comes down on the toes, she will automatically just fall."

"But she's good now, she's like 95% there."

And Brinae told us that it was tough for her when she was first hospital but now she's ready to get back on the dance floor.

Brinae Myvette, Received Prosthetic Leg
"It felt bad but I got my foot and I like it."

Courtney Menzies:
"How did you feel when they put on the prosthetic?"

Brinae Myvette, Received Prosthetic Leg
"It was great."

Courtney Menzies:
"Was it hard to learn how to use?"

Brinae Myvette, Received Prosthetic Leg
"Sometimes."

Courtney Menzies:
"What was the hardest part?"

Brinae Myvette, Received Prosthetic Leg
"I had to balance on a line so I can get my balance. I had to balance on a line."

Courtney Menzies:
"And are you happy that you can now continue to dance?"

Brinae Myvette, Received Prosthetic Leg
"Yeah."

Courtney Menzies:
"What do you love about dancing?"

Brinae Myvette, Received Prosthetic Leg
"I feel joy when I dance."

Delva Joseph, Brinae's Mother
"It's still the same, she says she's excited for September, she wants to dance carnival now since she has the two legs. She's still doing her ballet, she's still flipping, she's still dancing, she can still maneuver her leg, do a split, whatever it is, she can do them now with both legs."

And now with her new leg, Brinae returns to school at St Joseph on Monday.

Shriners will assist Brinae with replacing her prosthetic as she grows and treating any irritation that may arise until she is 18.