AN amputee has built his own prosthetic leg to save himself £35,000.
Alex Young, 46, lost his right leg below the knee last year after an old football injury caused a bone infection.
The NHS gave him a basic replacement, but he wanted to upgrade to a special running blade.
Facing costs of up to £35,000, he spent less than £100 on cheap and secondhand parts online.
They included a prosthetic foot from eBay and connecting aluminium tubes from Amazon.
He finished the project in a week, with the socket fitted by a specialist.
Alex – who has been sharing his DIY videos on TikTok – described the process as “super easy”.
He joked: “I was an engineer for 15 years – and it’s just like putting pipes together.”
He can now run 800m on his new leg and is planning a 5km run in July to raise money for Dorset County Hospital.
He said he wants to “give back” to the “amazing” staff and nurses.
And he is not done with his DIY projects yet – he is currently designing his own ‘thruster’ leg for swimming, which he describes as a “mix between a water jet and a propeller”.
