A HOMEMADE prosthetic leg has been created for an amputee after he was told he would have to wait up to six months for one on the NHS due to the coronavirus crisis.

Steve Watson’s wife, Atchari, set to work with things she found in the shed after the former soldier received the disappointing news on Thursday.

He said the first attempt, using child’s seaside bucket and a piece of wood, made him look like a pirate, but she managed to improvise something he could wear more comfortably.

Mr Watson, a father-of-three, who lives in lives in Shotley Bridge, near Consett, broke his leg when he jumped from a 5ft wall and landed awkwardly in July 2018.

His ankle had disintegrated and extensive follow-up treatment to try to reconstruct the limb has proved unsuccessful.

He had an operation to remove the lower part of his right limb in January and was due to be assessed for prosthesis last week.

Now it looks like he might have to wait until after summer.

Mr Watson said: “I am okay with it, but I didn’t want to be in a wheelchair for the next six months.

“My wife came home from work one day and I saw her rummaging around in the shed.

“She emerged with this kids’ yellow bucket and some pieces of wood. I said ‘what are you doing?’

“She said: ‘I am making you a leg’. I thought she was joking.

“I went into the living room and came back about an hour later she had got some advice about using fibre glass.

“Then next thing I know she has got this thing that looks like something off a pirate ship.”

“We realised the plastic in the bucket was too loose to mould itself around the stump.

“The problem was it kept sliding off so that was prototype number one.”

Prototype number two involved cutting up an old ‘moon boot’ Mr Watson was given when he first injured his leg.

He said: “It works. It is really good.

“I am not going to be going in the Paralympics. I am no Johnny Peacock but I can get about and I won’t have to use the wheelchair all of the time in the house.”

Atchari, 46, who was born in Thailand, previously ran restaurants and takeaways in Consett and Annfield Plain with Mr Watson.

She said: “He told me the hospital called to say he would have wait for at least three months.

“We could stay at home and do nothing but I thought I have to try so he can walk.

“I have done my best. The first try was no good and the second time was alright

“But because of health and safety he still has to be careful. We don’t want to break another leg.”

Mr Watson now works as teaching assistant with Greenland Community Primary school, in South Moor, near Stanley.

Next week he will be helping to teach the children of key workers unable to stay at home due to the global pandemic.

He said parents of pupils there include teachers, emergency service staff as well as supermarket workers and delivery drivers.

He said: “I am going to take the wheelchair in and will be using that but will also be taking the leg in so I can use it to get about a bit.

“I also want to show it to them to show them what is possible if you don’t give up.”

Mr Watson said he is happy to be going back to work to keep busy and is not put out that he is having to wait for his new limb while the NHS copes with the unprecedented demands of the coronavirus outbreak.

He said: “I understand they have got far more important things to do than this at the minute.

“I am not saying that out of bravado.

“I have not given it a second thought in terms of what they have to prioritise.

“There are people far worse of than me at the minute.”