New prosthetics centre to give amputees hope

A new multi-million pound prosthetics centre has opened in Kent, aiming to become one of the leading clinics for amputees in the country.

The Kent and Medway Prosthetics Centre in Maidstone was opened on Tuesday by Lord Craig Mackinlay, the former Conservative MP for South Thanet, who lost his hands and lower legs after contracting sepsis.

He was joined by Gurkha veteran Hari Budha Magar, from Canterbury, who became the first double above-the-knee amputee to climb the highest peak on each of the seven continents, including Everest.

Both hoped the centre, which will serve more than 1,000 patients under the NHS, would improve the lives of their fellow amputees.

In September 2023, Lord Mackinlay was rushed to hospital and put into a 16-day induced coma. His family was told he had only a 5% chance of survival.

But, in 2024, he returned to the Commons as a quadruple amputee and was dubbed Parliament's first "bionic lord".

Having previously admitted that "accessing the right prosthetics at the right time" on the NHS was something of "a postcode lottery", he said he had found himself "clinging on to anything that makes life better again".

"And its centres like this which will make the difference in giving them the service, rehabilitation and prosthetics they need," Lord Mackinlay added.

"Those bits and pieces are what's needed to rebuild your life."

Magar lost both legs in 2010 when he stood on an IED while serving with the British Army in Afghanistan.

Struggling to recover both mental and physically, he described experiencing "dark" times and "a loss of self-worth" before discovering a new purpose, sparked by his boyhood dream of becoming a mountaineer.

He said the centre would give fellow amputees the ability to live life to the full.

"Many like me can come here and get legs to enable us to do by ourselves all the things we have to do," he said.

"That can be making a cup of tea, going to the toilet or even climbing mountains."

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