Tow truck driver with one leg inspiring others
A FOX 7 viewer reached out to us after seeing our story on aggressive panhandling Tuesday night. He says he faces it every day, transients asking for money. That's why he recorded a man with only one leg, hard at work, to show that anything is possible.
It's just another day for Philip West, working as a tow truck driver and manager.
"I think you just have to challenge yourself in everything you do in life," says Philip West, tow truck driver, manager.
To other people, his life is not so average. Now he is being recognized for it.
"To be able to handle that the way he does, at ease, is amazing. That's inspiring," Mario Ugalde Hernandez, acquaintance.
Mario Ugalde Hernandez asked West if he could record him on his cell phone. He then posted it to Facebook not knowing it would grab the attention of thousands. It reads quote:
"I see a guy on a Congress corner with one leg & a crutch, asking for money, says he has no choice...but then I see this guy!!" #NoExcuse
"How could you not want to get up and go do something after watching somebody do something like that?" says Hernandez.
West says he is a three-time cancer survivor, losing his leg at just ten years old. He could have any job but he says he's doing what he loves.
"I'm just loading up scissor lifts; I'm loading up little flat-bed trucks to get them back to the yard. Is it manual? It's manual, it's hard, it's hot...yea, but I enjoy it," says West.
West is also busy being a husband and father, even making time to coach a junior flag football team that his daughter plays on. That's where FOX 7 met up with him.
"I always believe that if you're going to do something, regardless of what it is, trash man or tow truck driver or whatever, just become the best at it. That's what I focus on; I want to become the best at it. I want to be known as the best at what I do," says West.
He says anybody can give you an excuse, it's just an easy way out of having to do something. He hopes this will inspire others to challenge themselves.
"You've got to get around somebody that's going to be positive, that will influence you and encourage you to go do something with your life. Most of those people aren't surrounded by that. If you don't have that, somewhere deep down inside you've go to pull that out of yourself," says West.