Paralympics bid for Dorset leg amputee
- Published
The 21-year-old won the British Paratriathlon Championships last August
A woman who had her leg amputated after an ingrown toenail led to an infection hopes to compete in the 2020 Paralympics.
Hannah Moore, of Stalbridge, Dorset, had her leg removed in July 2016 after a procedure to get rid of her toenail led to foot pain and infected ulcers.
By October that year, the 21-year-old started paratriathlon training and won the British championships last August.
She said having her leg amputated "has given me my life back".
Miss Moore paid £5,000 to have her leg amputated privately despite doctors warning the complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) she previously suffered from could become worse if her leg was removed.
She no longer has CRPS and said: "It's the best decision I've made.
"I can do whatever I want now and have discovered talents I didn't know I had."
'Cycling leg'
Miss Moore, who trains in Sherborne up to three hours a day, six times a week, spent two years in a wheelchair as a result of the infection following the toenail procedure in 2012.
"I started wheelchair racing but I wasn't that good and the open wounds on my foot stopped me from doing triathlons," she said.
"Once I'd learned to walk again after my leg was removed I joined a triathlon club, started training and got a coach."
In February she joined the GB Paratriathlon Talent Squad.
Paratriathlon is a variant of the triathlon for athletes with a physical disability and involves swimming, cycling and running.
"I'm hoping to build on my performance now - I've got a running blade prosthetic and a cycling leg that clips directly into the pedals of my bike," she said.
"Hopefully I can compete in my first international race this year and my ultimate goal is the Paralympics in 2020, in Tokyo."
Miss Moore is currently a student at Yeovil College in Somerset and hopes to go to Leicestershire's Loughborough University in September to study sport and exercise science.