--- title: BBC Correspondent Nikki Fox Takes Her First Steps in Ten Years description: With the help of a motorized exoskeleton, the journalist was able to stand and walk on her own canonical: https://time.com/3639590/nikki-fox-bbc-first-steps-disability/ author: Megan Gibson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-18T13:40:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:58:16.052Z article:section: Health og:title: Watch This Woman Take Her First Steps in Ten Years og:description: With the help of a motorized exoskeleton, the journalist was able to stand and walk on her own og:url: https://time.com/3639590/nikki-fox-bbc-first-steps-disability/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch This Woman Take Her First Steps in Ten Years twitter:description: With the help of a motorized exoskeleton, the journalist was able to stand and walk on her own twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch This Woman Take Her First Steps in Ten Years by [Megan Gibson](https://time.com/author/megan-gibson/) ## Megan Gibson Dec 18, 2014 1:40 PM UTC by [Megan Gibson](https://time.com/author/megan-gibson/) ## Megan Gibson Dec 18, 2014 1:40 PM UTC Journalist Nikki Fox, who serves as a disability correspondent for BBC News, was born with muscular dystrophy and hadn’t taken a step on her own in ten years. But in the video above, Fox was able to briefly walk again with the help of a device known as an exoskeleton, which was strapped to her body. The motorised robotic equipment, which she was able to control herself, allowed her to stand and take slow steps, without the aid of another person. “My legs hadn’t been that straight since 1995,” Fox [told the BBC](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02ffl01). “What was quite unbelievable was how I felt afterwards. Standing for half an hour would usually be quite tough but it wasn’t.” \[[_BBC_](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02ffl01)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3639590/nikki-fox-bbc-first-steps-disability/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3639590/nikki-fox-bbc-first-steps-disability/"},"headline":"Watch This Woman Take Her First Steps in Ten Years","datePublished":"2014-12-18T13:40:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:58:16.052Z","description":"With the help of a motorized exoskeleton, journalist Nikki Fox was able to stand and walk on her own","url":"https://time.com/3639590/nikki-fox-bbc-first-steps-disability/","keywords":["disability","health","BBC"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan Gibson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/megan-gibson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/disability/","name":"disability"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3639590/nikki-fox-bbc-first-steps-disability/","name":"Watch This Woman Take Her First Steps in Ten Years"}}]}] ```