Double amputee Ronnie McIntosh could be on the way to becoming Dundee’s blade runner.
The inspirational 61-year-old has raised about half the £9,000 cost of a pair of high-tech artificial limbs to allow him to take up light running and he might get a set like the remarkable South African paralympian Oscar Pistorius.
The member of Hawkhill Harriers Athletics Club has sent off a letter to the private clinic that is helping turn his dream into a reality, and believes he could be pounding the streets around his Douglas home on his blades or similar limbs in two months.
Ronnie was devastated to undergo a double amputation below the knee because of kidney failure. He also underwent a kidney transplant because dialysis stopped working after six years, and a new organ was his only hope to survive.
Six months after the transplant, and fitted with artificial limbs, he summoned the strength and will to complete a ”racewalk,” and was delighted at his achievement in covering a mile in 20 minutes.
The performance raised his expectations of what he might accomplish, and now his goal is to run a challenge for which he will need more specialised artificial limbs.
He can’t get these through the NHS but is obtaining them through a private clinic in England which has assessed his needs and is investigating options.
”My goal is to be able to go light running, and with better limbs I can do it,” he said. ”Running has been a big part of my life and I was thrilled when I was able to go race walking with the prosthetic legs I have now.
”Light running is the next stage. It will be an achievement for me and I’ll also be doing it for the 40-year-old man who died from a brain haemorrhage and whose transplanted organs gave me and another seven people a second bite of life’s cherry.
”He and his family are always in the back of my mind, and I can never thank them enough for the chance they have given me.”
Finding that his existing artificial limbs were too heavy, wide and inflexible for much more than walking and that more specialised devices were unlikely to be funded through the NHS, he investigated the products available in the private sector.
His inquiries took him to the Ability Technology Group and their state-of-the-art facility in Bradford which specialises in prosthetic and orthotic devices for patients in the north of England and Scotland.
Earlier this month he travelled down to Yorkshire to be assessed at the clinic, which has advanced electronic patient scanning and robot technology.
A spokesman for Ability Technology said that after the consultation to establish Ronnie’s requirements and ambitions, it has been agreed he will be supplied with prosthetic limbs to help him in his desire to run.
Ronnie will get either ”a versatile solution for walking and running” or a more specific solution ”with high-rebound, energy-storing feet similar to the record-breaking paralympian Oscar Pistorius.”
Ability Clinic prosthetist Werner Herbst said: ”We look forward to supplying the new prosthetic legs to Mr McIntosh and will follow up his journey with great anticipation. It is always a proud moment for us when we can help our patients achieve their long-awaited goals.”
Ronnie is grateful to the many organisations and individuals who have supported him in his fundraising, including the Tayside Kidney Patients’ Association and the Landmark Hotel, the venue for a sportsman’s dinner for his cause on March 29.
He is also maintaining the tradition of stalwart amateur athletes striving to overcome challenges.
Ronnie was a close friend and near neighbour of Jenny Wood Allen, the oldest woman in the world to run a marathon when she took part in the London event at the age of 90. As well as being a running companion, Ronnie maintained her garden and read a poem at her funeral when she died at the age of 99 just over a year ago.
Ronnie is also the holder of the Jenny Wood Allen Trophy for his courage and sporting prowess.