Amputee father 'blown away' by fundraising efforts
A father who had his leg amputated has thanked generous family and friends who helped him enjoy a holiday.
Fundraising for Paul Madden snowballed and is just shy of £5,000, which will also help pay medical costs and could be used for an upgraded prosthetic.
Earlier this year the father-of-two, from Castlecroft, Wolverhampton, had his world turned upside down when he was told his right leg had to be removed due to diabetes and circulation problems.
The 42-year-old, who has two boys Billy, aged three, Leo, two, with his wife Helene, said: "I was at work one day and I'd been having problems with my leg. I'd been using a stick.
"My doctor phoned me and said come into hospital. They told me the needed to remove my leg. I had it removed a couple of days later.
"It was pretty out of the blue, I was still working. I'll find out soon if I'll need the other one removed. I think it's inevitable that it will go eventually, but hopefully I can keep it for as long as possible."
Since the devastating blow, Paul has been learning to walk again on a prosthetic limb, but it's not just him getting used to the change.
He said: "I was hoping I could keep the knee, because it's supposed to be a lot harder to learn to walk again with a prosthetic if you don't have the knee. But they couldn't save it unfortunately.
"I'm getting around a bit, but I'm still learning to use it. It's a very strange sensation. It's almost like you're just trying to balance on it rather than walking properly.
"At least I can use it though. I have a basic one, but there are proper top of the range ones that cost as much as £80,000. I think that's a bit out of my league!
"To get something a bit better than the one I have would be good though.
"My youngest is too young to understand what's going on with it really. But my older boy is scared of the new leg, he wouldn't even sit on my lap. It just looks like a stick at the bottom, I had to ask to get a casing for it that made it look a bit more like a leg, and now he's not too bad with it."
Since his plight began, Paul has been stunned by the outpouring of generosity by his friends. He said: "I've been pretty much blown away by the support from people.
"Initially a fundraising page was put up and £200 was donated towards a holiday to Devon for us.
"I thought that was amazing but for some reason it's just snowballed.
"I never expected anything so for people to be so kind is really overwhelming."
To support Paul, donate at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/pauly-m
