A man who suffered the devastating loss of his right leg following a horror cycling accident has vowed to get back to “being the dad his son deserves”.
Paul Fenney has been inspired by his three-year-old son Archie who adorably said: “Can we go to the toy shop and buy daddy a new leg?”
The pair were inseparable and would often run up and down hills together and play football in the park which Paul is eager to get back to doing.
Family are now hoping to raise £6,000 so Paul, from Widnes, Cheshire., can be fitted with a prosthetic leg so he can once again “live the life” he did before.
It comes after Paul’s world was turned upside down when he was struck by an articulated lorry while cycling home from work — a journey he had made twice a day for five years.
The 38-year-old’s loved ones faced an anxious wait for several hours to find out the full extent of Paul’s injury after he was rushed to a trauma unit at Aintree University Hospital.
Paul was put into an induced coma before surgeons battled to save his right leg but had to amputate it below the knee last Tuesday (29 May).
He has remained in hospital since and revealed his son Archie struggled to come to terms with the tragic accident.
But, along with his wife Laura Fenney, 33, Paul has made efforts so the youngster feels “more included” during his rehabilitation by buying him a doctor’s outfit because he loves dressing up.
Paul said: “It’s only two weeks since it happened and I’ve got a long way to go yet. I want the leg so I can go back to living my life the way I did before.
“Archie really struggled at first, he just didn’t understand.
“One night I was in my hospital bed and he got in with me and just thought this was our new bed saying ‘daddy it is storytime?’.
“My wife said he asked, ‘can we go to the toy shop and buy daddy a new leg?”. He thinks you can buy a new leg with chocolate buttons.”
Paul was crushed under a lorry as he was riding home from work to pick up his son from nursery at around 4.40pm on May 15 this year.
“As far as I remember I was coming up to a roundabout and there was this HGV, it came along the side of me, I fell into it and it then went over my leg,” he added.
“It was just excruciating and I remember looking down at my leg and seeing blood. The pain was nothing like I have ever felt before.
“I cannot fully remember being run over, I think I’ve just blocked it out. Someone said I tried to crawl to get back on my bike.
“The driver did stay with me until the ambulance arrived, it does feel like it was a terrible accident.
“I’m just grateful my head wasn’t crushed and I can live to fight another day. I just want to go back to being the dad Archie deserves.
“It wasn’t until I was told I was going to lose my right leg that it really hit home, it was a lot to take in.”
Describing the moment she found out about the collision, Laura said: “When the police rang they wouldn’t tell me if he was dead or alive.
“The damage to his leg was catastrophic. He had no muscle, skin or soft tissue and no feeling in his foot. They tried to reattach new muscle but it died.”
Paul is an avid marathon runner who has raised thousands of pounds for charity.
He was due to run a 22-mile coast to coast marathon in Cornwall and had five more tough challenges lined up.
Paul’s hopes of competing in several endurance challenges including Beat The Train, Man vs Coast and Man vs Mountain have now been dashed following the horror crash.
His running partner Simon Humphreys-Jones has started fundraising and already more than £3,000 has been donated.
To donate visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/paulsleg.
