Heather Mills has shared details of an uncomfortable encounter on a train involving her prosthetic leg.
The former model and wife of The Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney was 25 years old in 1993 when she was run over by a police motorcycle in London and resulted in crushed rips, a punctured lung and the amputation of her left leg below the knee.
Following the accident Heather continued to model and set up a charity – the Heather Mills Health Trust – which delivered prosthetic limbs to people, particularly children, who had lost limbs after stepping on landmines.
Over the years Heather, 57, has used her platform to become a prominent campaigner for amputee rights and prosthetic technology innovation, but this week faced an awkward exchange when a man didn’t notice her prosthetic and complained about the room she was taking up.
Sharing a video online that was filmed from her seat on a South Western Railway service, Heather said the confrontation began when a man complained about her stretching out her leg.
Unaware that one of her legs was prosthetic, the passenger then accused her of taking up too much space.
‘I just literally had a moany man who was asking me to move my leg. I tried to explain, and he wouldn’t listen. So, I took my leg off – and he shut up,’ she explained.
She went on: ‘This is for everyone who travels on a train and is getting annoyed because of a tall leggy blonde who’s having to stretch her leg out.
‘The reason for this is because you can’t pull your leg right in because the underneath of the prosthetic cuts into the back of the leg.
‘So just think twice before you turn your nose up.’
(Picture: The Sun/ Shutterstock)
Heather has previously spoken about the daily discomforts and social misunderstandings faced by prosthetic users.
‘Comfort and mobility often require adjustments that the public may not immediately understand,’ she said.
In 2010 she began skiing competitively at the age of 42, going on to win four gold medals at the 2012 Skiing World Championships in Aspen.
In 2015, she was recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest disabled female skier in the world, clocking a speed of 102.5mph in Vars, south-east France.
In 2002 Heather became a household name when she married Sir Paul, four years after his first wife Linda had died of breast cancer.
The couple went on to welcome daughter Beatrice Milly McCartney in 2003. They eventually split three years later, with Mills claiming the breakdown of the marriage was due to McCartney’s daughter Stella and her disapproval of the relationship.
During their well-publicised divorce proceedings Heather asked for £125million but was eventually awarded a lump sum of £16.5million, plus assets of £7.8 million, which included the properties she owned at the time.
She has been in a relationship with film producer Mike Dickman, who is nearly 20 years her junior, since 2019.
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