'I have no recollection of having two legs'

Pyers Symon thinks of himself as always having had one leg

Heather Mills's appearance on the US version of Strictly Come Dancing is not exploitation or naked publicity seeking, but a model of how active some amputees can be, says Pyers Symon in our Readers' Column.

Am I disabled? I have a blue badge which proves it, although I hope that the authorities didn't notice that I once cycled to collect it.

I lost my leg more than 40 years ago, as a small boy, after developing meningococcal meningitis. A rapid amputation was necessary. It was either that or die.

Unlike Heather Mills, and many others, I have no recollection of having two legs. I have - as far as I am concerned anyway - always had one leg. This is me. This is how I have always lived.

I do often wonder what I would have been like with two legs, but not regretfully Pyers Symon, 49, from Worcester Inspiration or irritation?

I don't look at tasks and think "what can't I do?" but ask instead "how can I do this?". Apart, that is, from those irritating tasks that anyone sensible should avoid and I have every intention of persuading someone else to do - like digging the garden or climbing up ladders to clear gutters.

I enjoy swimming and, no, I don't swim in circles because I am kicking with only one leg. Cycling is surprisingly easy - I was taught by my mother at the age of 19. She wanted to give me independence and herself fewer taxi duties.

Cycling can also be a lot less painful than walking, especially in warm weather. I have even, for one wonderful hour, piloted a light aircraft.

Immense revolution

Legs have changed so much in the past 46 years - they have improved vastly over that period, from limbs which would have not looked out of place for victims of the Somme to modern computer-aided designs.

Heather Mills has been the centre of attention

Built of light materials that emanated from the aerospace industry, with bonded carbon fibre and strong alloys, these - NHS - legs allow me a pretty natural gait, albeit one a bit like a drunken rabbit.

The legs are not perfect and I have to watch my weight so that the socket doesn't become tight, but shouldn't everyone?

I do often wonder what I would have been like with two legs, but not regretfully - if I hadn't had my leg amputated I would have been very dead indeed.

I sometimes wistfully wonder would I have met my wife? Would I have had three delightful, polite, undemanding, eloquent horrors of teenagers? Would I have become a runner like my father who ran for Cambridge?

And yet if I'm honest, I might as well try to imagine being a fish, or a bat or something that I am not. It is pointless - and possibly dangerous - doing these "what if" scenarios. I am me.

The design of prosthetic legs has been radically changed

There has been humour. I still remember the astonished look from a student when the dart he had just thrown ended up in my leg. I casually pulled it out. I only told the chap much later the reason why it didn't hurt.

My all-time favourite had to be the knee mechanism jamming during my wedding rehearsal, prompting dark mutterings between myself and my future wife. There was deep puzzlement from the vicar.

And I have promised my wife that I will stop parking in disabled spaces and then leap-frogging over the nearest bollard - at least while she is looking.

And in case anyone's wondering, I hate dancing.