AN amputee has called off the search for his £8,000 prosthetic leg after a generous Dorset company fitted him for a new one.

Roy Wright lost the limb taking a dip at Lake Pier, Hamworthy, on Saturday July 12. The story made national headlines after volunteer divers scoured the seabed searching for it.

Divers devoted countless hours to no avail and now, two weeks later, Roy is officially calling off the search, following the incredible generosity of Dorset Orthopaedic in Ringwood, which tracked him down to offer him a new leg.

Roy, who is co-founder of charity Limbcare and currently setting up a charity to give amputees holidays at Beacon Hill, picked up the new ultra light limb this week after it was fitted and made in just a few days. He has already had it decorated with the no diving sign – a reminder of his spur-of-the-moment plunge off Lake Pier which not only cost him his leg – but nearly his life. Caught in the current and unable to swim free without the missing limb, he had to be pulled clear of the water by a passerby.

The 45-year-old from Addlestone in Surrey told the Echo: “It’s unreal – absolutely unreal. When I got the call from them offering it I cried on the phone. They said they’d seen the story and knew about the charity work I’d done to help amputees, and said all I had to do was say yes.

“I didn’t expect it. I didn’t know what to say. I’m completely blown away by it.

“Something so good has come out of something which potentially could have been horrible.”

Roy told the Echo he will be throwing a big party with live music and food at Beacon Hill Touring Park on Saturday, August 30, for everyone who took part in the search.

He added: “It’s a little thank you from me. I don’t know everyone’s names but they know who they are and hopefully they can come along and find me.”