Clever, Mo. woman adorns prosthetic leg with show of support for KC Chiefs

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) -

Chastity Peck has been through a lot of trying times since the Kansas City Chiefs started their second-straight run at the Super Bowl.

But she’s never wavered in her love for the Chiefs and so she decided to use something that brought her great joy to deal with something that brought her great sadness.

As you enter the neighborhood where Chastity now lives with her mom in Clever, Missouri you’ll notice a rather unique sign along the road that says, “Slow-Dog Xing” which makes you wonder if it’s a slow dog that crosses there or whether drivers should slow down because dogs cross there.

But that’s not the only unique thing you’ll find in the neighborhood.

As you pull up to the house that Chastity lives in, you’ll see a Chiefs flag flying proudly and glitter-filled decorations along the railing of the ramp leading up to the front door.

Inside you’ll find a lot of sports memorabilia collected by Chastity (Chiefs) and her mom Maggie McMellen (NASCAR, St. Louis Cardinals).

Chastity’s collection includes a unique bearded gnome doll dressed in Chiefs’ colors.

Its’s name of course?

“Patrick Ma-gnome,” Chastity replied. “It’s made out of a milk jug. And it’s got Air Jordan shoes!”

But that’s not the one-of-a-kind piece of Chief pride that Chastity has become known for.

It’s her prosthetic leg that is permanently decorated with all kinds of Chief logos, an addition to her life that came after a terrifying experience that started last September.

At the same time the Chiefs were starting their second-straight Super Bowl run Chastity was undergoing three amputations in three days starting at her foot, then her ankle, and then to just below the knee.

“It started off as a callus on my left foot right by my little toe,” Chastity said. “It was about dime-sized and then it started getting bigger and bigger and finally busted open. Then they found gas polyps in the upper part of my leg.”

“The hardest part for me was not being able to be at the hospital when she had her surgeries,” said Maggie as Chastity’s worried mom was not allowed in her daughter’s room because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But even after bringing Chastity home Maggie struggled watching her daughter try to cope with her life-changing medical situation.

“Emotionally for me it has been get up out of bed and go into the living room so nobody sees tears,” she said.

It was Maggie’s late husband Larry McMellen who had got Chastity, his stepdaughter, interested in becoming a Chiefs fan. She didn’t even care about football until 1996 when Larry taught her about the game and the intense fan support of Chiefs Kingdom.

She was hooked. And even though Larry passed away from cancer 10 years later Chastity remained a huge Chiefs fan and when she lost her leg, there was no doubt what she’d do next.

“Why not get something you like?” Chastity said of her decision to pay tribute to her favorite team on her new leg. “You’re gonna live with it for the rest of your life.”

“I think the Chief prosthetic has made her more proud of it,” Maggie added. “More eager to get out and do (things) and go out and be seen in public even though she’s still with a walker.”

Chastity has also been inundated with support on Facebook.

“I’ve gotten over 20,000 likes on it,” she said. “I can go back and look at some of the comments and they cheer you up.”

Chastity’s goal is to return to her job as a taxi driver, adding jokingly she enjoys her job as long as she doesn’t have to pick up Dallas Cowboy fans.

“Cause I don’t like the Cowboys,” she said with a laugh. “Sometimes I tell them they need to get out.”

But considering her prosthetic leg coincided with the Chiefs Super Bowl run, it might just be a good luck charm and proof, as Chastity puts it, that “You can make a good thing out of a bad thing. It’s part of my life now and you’ve got to get used to it.”

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