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Pastimes : My House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Poet who wrote (328)	9/6/2002 11:44:55 AM
From: E	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7689

Did you see Jane Kramer's piece in a recent New Yorker about cooking and writing? The association between the two, in her life? If you missed it I'll stick it in an envelope and send it to you. Going offline now.... EMMA NEARS DREAM JOB AFTER STRETCHING SURGERY LUCY GRIFFITHS 09:00 - 03 September 2002 A teenager who had her legs lengthened in a desperate attempt to become a flight attendant is beginning a college course to boost her chances of taking to the skies. Emma Richards, now 18, is due to begin a two-year course in travel and tourism and air cabin crew skills at St Austell College next week. Two-and-a-half years ago she chose to undergo complicated surgery and months of pain to try to reach the minimum height requirement for a flight attendant of 5ft 2in. Emma was 4ft 9in when she had the operation in January 2000 and since then she has grown several inches. But at 5ft 1in she still falls an inch under the minimum height requirement. Undeterred, Emma decided to enrol on the college course to improve her qualifications and chances of fulfilling her dream. Emma said: "Becoming a flight attendant is the only thing I've ever wanted to do and I think the course will really help me to learn all about the tourism industry and will hopefully give me the opportunity to get a foot on the ladder." After having the initial six-hour operation, estimated to have cost about £12,000, Emma, from Wadebridge, was bedridden for four months. The former Wadebridge Carnival Queen also had to return to the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Treliske, Truro, several times because of complications that included infection and further breaks to her legs. The operation in January 2000 involved breaking each femur in two places and screwing six five-inch pins to each bone, attached to a metal frame, or "fixator". Four times a day Emma had to turn a screw on the fixator to stretch her legs. This meant the bone would keep being rebroken and not be allowed to mend until it had stretched while it was growing back. Emma added: "Everything is fine now after the surgery and hopefully with the qualifications the one inch that I'm missing will not stop me from becoming a flight attendant." Her mother Irene said: "There are lots of airlines who want pretty small people out there." Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Darren Fern did Emma's operation, which he said had been done for functional, and not cosmetic, reasons to make her life better. Emma said: "I hope that I'll be able to impress airlines with my qualifications once I've finished the course. "I still think the operation was worth it because it's made my quality of life better and although it's been painful at times I'm glad I did it. I'm just excited about what the future holds now."