'Peg Leg Dad': Cancer changes Harrisburg man's life

A Harrisburg man isn't letting his amputation get the best of him.

Matt Beck recently had one of his legs amputated after finding rare cancer in his leg and pelvic area.

Sunday he went live on his Facebook page to share his story and answer any questions people may have.

He now lives to tell his story and continues to be a normal man.

Sunday afternoon Beck shared his story with others on his Facebook page 'Peg-Leg-Dad' to answer questions regarding the life of an amputee. During his process, he knew he had a few people to live for leading to the fight of his life.

At the beginning of 2018, Beck experienced pain in his leg so he decided to get it checked.

"May 25th, 2018 we went into the doctor again and we did an x-ray on my hip and found out that I had actually fractured my femur," Beck said.

Doctors found something had been eating away at his femur and later diagnosed it as cancer, but not any old cancer something rare.

"Pseudomyogenic Hemangioendothelioma. There are about 130 cases or so of it,” Beck said. "As soon as I heard malignancy, which means cancer, as soon as the doctor said that everything basically shut down. I didn't hear anything at that point."

Going through one of the toughest things in his life while doing several months of chemo. He couldn't bear any weight down on his leg but had to adapt.

"No options to try and save the leg again or anything so February 15th, 2019 I actually had the amputation. So it's a hemipelvectomy so it's not just the leg it's actually the entire left half of my pelvis as well," Beck said.

The 28-year-old husband and father had the pain in his knee for years but never knew the pain would alter his life forever. The tumor potentially slowly grew for years.

"For myself, it was kind of one of those I have a daughter and my daughter was two years old at that point. I’ve got a wife and I need to get through this. I need to survive whatever we have to do, let's do it,” Beck said. “I want to walk my daughter down the aisle that's the big thing so that's what I kept reminding myself every single day."

Now he lives to tell his tale by answering questions for those curious to know the life of an amputee.

"You’re going to see people that are going to look different and that can mean a million different things. See the person, don't see the difference," Beck said.

When Beck heard the word cancer all he could think of was death since it’s taken family members from him before. He knew if he didn't have this procedure he would die. Now he connects with others living the same life he now lives.

As of now, Matt Beck is 100 percent cancer-free.