Man left for dead in hit-and-run joins campaign to help injury victims
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00:00How do you feel about what happened to you? Are you angry about it?
00:11When he lost control of the vehicle he was doing 106 in a 60.
00:15Yeah, it doesn't bear thinking about.
00:20So the amputation happened about a week later.
00:23The NHS had several attempts at creating a limb seismal for me.
00:28I couldn't walk further than a couple of minutes.
00:31The pain was excruciating. The fit was terrible.
00:35It just wasn't working for me.
00:36I was getting despondent. I was getting upset.
00:40The other insurance company were basically suggesting
00:45that it was nothing to do with them.
00:49Which for the first year made things very, very difficult
00:52because there was then the danger that actually I wasn't going to get any compensation.
00:57We're talking tens of thousands of pounds for some of the limbs
01:03that only have a finite life.
01:07I found a very, very good solicitor who's been absolutely amazing
01:12and he managed to arrange an interim payment.
01:15So I had my first private limb fitted in August and it was like chalk and cheese.
01:21The mobility was fantastic.
01:25I can't explain the difference it made.
01:27For me, it was the turning point.
01:29It was me showing myself that I could be the old me.
01:34And all that was because of the interim payment.
01:37The case in the end took just over three years to settle.
01:42And in that time, through the interim payments,
01:43we managed to get the first limb, the powered limb and to change to a safer house.
01:50That made the world of difference. It really did.
01:54If I hadn't been able to make the claim, I would still be on an NHS limb.
02:00I wouldn't have been able to work. I wouldn't have been able to move.
02:04It just wouldn't be possible that I would have been a shadow of the person I was.
02:09I am disabled and there are things that I struggle with on occasions.
02:13There are things I can't do on occasions, but more often than not, I'm able-bodied.
02:19That's how I try and see myself.
02:21And that has all been thanks to being able to get the support that I needed to make that happen.