I had my foot amputated — so I set up a shoe exchange for others like me

She put her best foot forward.

A British woman has risen to fame after starting an online shoe exchange for those who are missing one of their feet.

Kent native Jo O’Callaghan, 49, was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) as well as allodynia and had to have her right foot amputated, reported South West News Service.

In an effort to give away her no-longer-needed right shoes, O’Callaghan created a Facebook group called Jo’s Odd shoes for those people like her who had no use for one shoe.

“It started with me just trying to get rid of my 20-odd right shoes,” explained O’Callaghan, who realized that she couldn’t easily sell them since they were not in pairs.

Since then, the group has really taken off and expanded to nearly 3,500 people.

“Now we have so many people donating us shoes to other people who need them,” gushed O’Callaghan. “Everyone deserves to wear a shoe.”

O’Callaghan said her discomfort first began in 2001 when she was woken up by numbness on the right side of her body, and the pain later traveled all over her body and caused her right hand to ball into a fist due to the pain.

It was so bad that O’Callaghan couldn’t work.

“The pain got progressively worse,” said the 49-year-old. “I lost the use of my right hand as it curled up.”

O’Callaghan said she underwent three surgeries on her hand so she would be able to uncurl it.

“It causes me no pain now, but I can’t move my fingers — only my thumb,” said O’Callaghan.

She also revealed that it took doctors nearly 10 years to officially diagnose her with CRPS.

“Eventually they were able to diagnosis me with CRPS when I saw a doctor who knew of it,” she said. “It was a relief to get a name for it.”

Allodynia is “pain from actions that aren’t typically painful,” according to Healthline, while complex regional pain syndrome is a “form of chronic pain that usually affects an arm or a leg.”

“People thought I was making it up,” said O’Callaghan. “Because of my allodynia, I can’t even get under the covers in bed because the feeling of them touching me is agony.”

The pain also caused O’Callaghan’s right foot to stick out at an odd angle and become a “lump of meat,” which she “hated.”

“I had to use crutches to walk, and then eventually I became reliant on a wheelchair,” said O’Callaghan. “The pain was unbearable and it was like a lump of meat.”

O’Callaghan said that she toyed with the idea of getting her foot amputated, but it was her 60-year-old husband who eventually convinced her that she should do it — despite his initial misgivings — while the pair were on vacation five years ago.

“I thought about amputation for a while but my husband, Nick, wasn’t sure,” explained O’Callaghan. “But while we were on holiday over Christmas in 2018, he told me to do it when he could see just how much pain I was in.”

Nearly a year later, in November 2019, O’Callaghan underwent the amputation process and was actually relieved to see her foot removed.

“Of course, there was some adjustment to having no right foot, but I didn’t have any shock that it wasn’t there,” she said. “I knew a prosthetic wouldn’t be possible for me because of the pain.

Now O’Callaghan is focusing on her shoe-sharing enterprise.

To swap an unwanted shoe, the user must upload a photo of the item and then indicate whether it is for a left or right foot, as well as the size,

Through her page, O’Callaghan said that she met a man who hadn’t worn shoes in years to due being in constant pain — and didn’t even see the point in buying them.

According to O’Callaghan, he now gets tons of shoes and is called “trendy” by his grandchildren.

“It’s become a community,” gushed O’Callaghan.