Amputee signs with model agency to showcase ‘the beauty in prosthetic limbs’

‘Inclusivity is so key in the fashion industry just now, we need to see everyone being represented and I’m so happy to be a part of that’

Iona Hay has posed for huge designer and high street names in a ‘whirlwind’ few months (Photo: Brian Wolfe/Zebedee Management)

A young female amputee has successfully modelled for designer and high street labels after being signed with specialist talent agency Zebedee Management.

Iona Hay, from Glasgow, was scouted by the inclusive agency which works for greater representation of disabled people within the media, in November 2021, and has spent the last few months posing for different fashion outlets.

She was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, in 2008, and had to have her leg amputated at the age of just six years old.

But now, aged 18 and a fashion student, Iona wants to showcase “the beauty in...prosthetic limbs” and why “it’s important to be confident”.

Speaking to The Daily Record, she said: “The past few weeks have been incredible and a total whirlwind.

“I have to pinch myself and often think, ‘this can’t be real’, it’s crazy.

“Inclusivity is so key in the fashion industry just now, we need to see everyone being represented and I’m so happy to be a part of that.”

Iona Hay is taking the modelling world by storm (Photo: Brian Wolfe/Zebedee Talent)

Hay is unable to reveal further details of the fashion brands she has been working for until the campaigns launch, but said two of them are on the high street, and another is a well-known, luxury brand.

She has never let her disability hold her back, having previously participated in gymnastics, skiing and philanthropy, before making waves in the fashion world.

Hay’s cancer diagnosis occurred one year after her mother, Fiona Dolan, died of a brain tumour, aged 36.

But her family - dad Steven, 50, her twin Niamh, brothers Hamish, 23, and Peadar, 21, along with step-mother Gillian and eight-year-old twins René and Matilda - support her all the way.

Hay said: “My parents told me to go for it when I applied back in August.

“But I don’t think they knew what would be involved.

“Now they’re just really supportive and always back anything I do.”

The 18-year-old now wants to design clothes for amputees (Photo: Brian Wolfe/Zebedee Talent)

Hay’s experience of the fashion world has been so positive, that she now hopes to design clothes herself with amputees in mind, having moved to Edinburgh in September to start a BA in Fashion Design.

She added: “Designing for those who have prosthetic limbs is so important to me.

“I want everyone to be represented if I were to become a fashion designer, that’s the dream.

“Modelling has given me an amazing insight into behind the scenes.

“I want to show that you can achieve with prosthetic limbs, I didn’t have that representation in the media growing up.

“The experience has been insane so far and I hope it inspires others.”