I built my own prosthetic leg for swimming

swimming shorts and a prosthetic right limb.">Sarah Bawden

A former engineer who underwent a life-saving amputation has built his own prosthetic limb for swimming.

Alex Young, 46, from Blandford, Dorset, developed osteomyelitis – a potentially deadly bone infection that caused him severe pain. He opted to have his leg removed below the knee in August 2025.

He previously built a running prosthesis from cut-price components he found online and has now tested his second home-made limb in the sea.

He said: “It went really well as a first trial. I want the option to do maybe a triathlon.”

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Young, who previously ran the award-winning Ginger Viking cocktail bar in Blandford, also worked for 15 years as an engineer.

He said he had the idea of building a prosthetic swimming leg after being unable to find a suitable alternative.

“It’s a paddle that is attached to the bottom of a metal rod and I’ve made a leg that I can walk into the water with and can actually swim,” he explained.

“I used to paddleboard a lot and I thought if I put a paddle on the end of a leg, it will basically replicate a foot.”

Sarah Bawden

His limb test at Knoll Beach on Studland was his first sea swim for two years.

Young said his next task might be to design a cycling prosthesis to enable him to do the triathlon.

He is already planning to run 5km (3 miles) in Blandford on 3 July to raise money for Dorset County Hospital.

“I’ve got an idea for next year to do some more charity work, perhaps even do Mount Kilimanjaro,” he added.

“You see so many people on amputee websites saying: ‘I can’t do this, I can’t do that.’ I want to keep active.”

Amputee builds his own leg with parts found online