AN amputee has raised more than £10,000 for charity despite being struck down with pneumonia during his South Pole trek.

Marc Woods, 42, was part of one of six teams in the third Centenary Race to the South Pole to raise money for disability charity Mencap.

The company director, a patient of Ringwood-based Dorset Orthopaedic, attempted the 744k race 100 years on from Scott and Amundsen’s epic duel to be the first to reach the South Pole.

Marc, who is a former swimmer for Great Britain, Paralympian and four-times gold medallist, lost his leg to bone cancer at the age of 17. But he hasn’t let that hold him back and is now a director of learning and development company Sladen Woods in Manchester.

The father-of-one said: “It was clear that the level of determination and strength that was needed to finish, let alone compete, was immense. I had anticipated that the biggest challenge I would face would be related to my artificial leg and stump, but as it turned out it had nothing to do with it. I was having huge difficulty breathing and would later discover that I actually had pneumonia.”

Marc was pulled out of the race and taken to the Russian medical centre in Novo before being flown to Cape Town, but still managed to raise £10,533.50 for the charity along with his team mate.