BACK TO SCHOOL: Laura returns to school.

THE parents of a young New Forest girl who had part of her leg blown off during a bomb attack during a family holiday in South Africa are demanding a better deal for amputees.

Tony and Mandy Giddings could not believe the false leg that was offered to their eight-year-old daughter Laura.

She was severely injured when the family were victims of a terrorist bomb in South Africa last year which blew the lower half of her leg away.

Two people died in the explosion and 25 people were injured, including her father and younger brother Jacob.

Now Laura's proud parents are battling for the right for other amputees to have the same life-like and comfortable prosthetics as their daughter.

The Giddings family from Bramshaw could afford to buy the limb for Laura which they believe has helped her remarkable recovery.

Laura's new leg, which she calls Peggy, cost £2,500 and even Prime Minister's wife Cherie Blair had to ask which was the false leg when she awarded Laura her Children of Courage medal at Christmas.

Prosthetics specialists Bob Watts of Dorset Orthopaedics in Ringwood estimates that throughout her life Laura's legs will cost £700,000.

Mandy and Tony want others to have access to the same high quality of care and materials without the cost.

Tony said: "With the current situation amputees face a double disfigurement. First of all they have a missing limb, and then they have to face having a replacement that is obviously false.

"Laura was traumatised when she first saw the shiny plastic leg on offer on the NHS.''

Her parents decided to go private. Laura is now on her third artificial leg in less than a year, they have already spent more than £7,000.

It's not just the cost they are cam-paigning against. It's the system. Mandy said: "It's just a postcode lottery, and because we didn't like the choice we were given we were left with no choice."

Laura was initially sent to Portsmouth Disabled Service and the NHS, but when her parents were unhappy with her treatment. Their only option was to pay.

Tony said: "It's not that we expect the NHS to pay for everything, but it could at least make a contribution to the basic model and we would pay the rest."

The Giddings want to see national standards for prosthetics treatment, irrespective of the age, address or financial status of the patients.

Their campaign is being supported by Heather Mills, the model and TV presenter who lost her lower leg when she was hit by a police motorbike answering a 999 call.

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