Jessica Quinn - Still Standing: What Ive Learnt from a Life Lived Differently

Me at two years old, with my trademark beaming smile.

Taking part in a ballet recital at age seven.

Posing for a photo at our family home in Albany with my sisters, Abby (centre) and Sophie-Rose (right).

Competing in a school cross-country race at the age of eight. Running was my thing as a kid.

Getting to grips with my crutches and hip spica (plaster cast) after breaking my femur in March 2001.

My sisters checking out my hip spica and wheelchair outside our house in Albany.

With my mum, Debby, at a hospital check-up before I started chemotherapy in July 2001.

Still smiling through the chemo.

Meeting entertainer Suzy Cato in hospital while receiving chemotherapy. Years later, we would appear together in the same season of Dancing with the Stars.

With Nana Jan, exploring the world outside the hospital on a day off from treatment.

Having fun with my sisters at home during a gap between chemo treatments.

Meeting a friends puppy at home in Albany. Later, Mum and Dad let me get my own dog to celebrate finishing chemo and getting out of hospital.

My dad, Jim, can always reassure me with his gentle bedside manner.

Having a laugh with Grandma Ann while recovering from my rotationplasty surgery.

My first bath following the amputation and rotationplasty.

At the Limb Centre, getting fitted with my first prosthetic leg.

An image from the 2016 photo shoot that went viral. The pics were taken by my photographer friend Jono Parker and it was my first try at modelling.

Striding down the beach on a modelling assignment for activewear company Athleta in Sydney, 2018. I love this photo because it captures how happy I was in that moment, just enjoying moving my body. PHOTO BY BEAU GREALY

Performing my first dance with partner Jonny Williams on Dancing with the Stars, May 2018.

Dancing with Jonny in the grand final, July 2018. We placed third overall.

One of my first shoots with Natural Models LA in August 2018.

Modelling in the Jockey show at New Zealand Fashion Week, 30 August 2018. PHOTO BY STEFAN GOSATTI/GETTY IMAGES

Two favourite images from a studio shoot with talented New Zealand photographer Brijana Cato, December 2018.

Shooting a campaign for health and wellbeing company AIA in May 2019, after I became one of their AIA Vitality ambassadors.

Stepping outside my comfort zone to walk the runway at Melbourne Fashion Week, July 2019.

Quad biking at Joshua Tree National Park in California in December 2019: a great way to cap off a full-on year.

Hanging by the pool with my partner, Todd, during Christmas 2020 celebrations.

Having a cuddle with my dog Scout, 2021.

OUT OF ALL THE pages in this book, these ones have been the hardest to write. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but where I start and where I stop has been weighing on my mind for weeks. Given the life I have lived up until this point, the list of people who have made me who I am who have supported me, cheered me on and helped build me back up is endless.