Raymond Edwards using the i-LIMB

Raymond Edwards using the i-LIMB

Amputation, inevitably, has a huge impact on your life. Everyday tasks become a challenge and your whole outlook on life can change. Help is at hand though, in the form of the i-LIMB, a prosthetic arm that can help you regain your usual life.

Raymond Edwards survived Hodgkins Disease only to have all four limbs amputated in 1987 after he developed septicaemia. He was unable to continue running his business in the building trade, and unable to cope with the psychological effects of his disability, he became very depressed and his wife divorced him.

However, science has now enabled him to gain a good quality of life, through the latest innovations in prosthetic limbs - which have allowed Ray to do the simplest things once again, like picking up a glass. He has also now remarried, and has two children. He runs a construction company customising houses for disabled people and is acting chair of the UK Limbless Association.

Ray had the i-LIMB hand, made by world-leading UK prosthetics company Touch Bionics, fitted several months ago on the NHS, and says it has changed his life: "i-LIMB has helped me more psychologically than physically. That was the first time in 21 years that I had seen a hand opening there - it made me feel I was just Ray again".

Touch Bionics continues to develop prosthetics, and they are already revolutionising the lives of amputees.

Ray’s story illustrates the importance of science and innovation in changing people’s lives. Ray is supporting the government campaign to get more people involved in science, the Science: [So What? So Everything] campaign.