I was born with the same leg condition as Oscar Pistorious and haven't shot anyone yet, have seen first hand how bad the UK media can be, been on Richard and Judy, have had over 25 operations, recently completed the Rickshaw Run and am trying to o...

Automatic Upvote for "Havent shot anyone yet"

Yeah OP, why didnt you shoot anyone yet ? Do you want to get famous or not ?

oh men with leg conditions shooting people is so last week! marry a dog, be original. would love to see the daily mails headline if that happened!

haha

[deleted]

The opportunity hasn't presented itself yet

[deleted]

http://imgur.com/0q36lxe

sorry its not a great picture trying to take a shady photo in the office!

[deleted]

Yep!

Thanks for doing this AMA. I have a few questions.

1. Why haven't you shot anyone yet?
2. Do you plan on shooting anyone?
3. If you could go back in time and shoot someone, who would it be?
4. Would you rather shoot someone through a door or without a door?
5. If you could run for any public office, would you consider shooting your opponent?

1 - Haven't had a crossover between holding a gun and seeing someone I would like to shoot

2 - Not in the immediate future

3 - a dinosaur as to cause maximum confusion when they find the fossil

4 - depends on the door if its bullet proof there would be an unacceptable risk of shooting myself

5 - only if it looked like they would win

Is there anyone left here in the UK that doesn't know how bad the media can be?

Some people ITT obviously

Of the UK media outlets which do you think is worst?

The Sun! Just look at the article I was interviewed by a local paper one day and the next thing I know is im all over the UK and international press, they spun my story so far from what really happened it was surreal, I had operations to break and stretch out my leg over time, it wasn't grown in a petri dish as the Sun would have you believe! lol

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/1309790/Docs-build-teen-new-leg-from-stump-he-was-born-with.html

For years I was under the impression that any Brit with half a brain knew that the sun was little more than printed toilet paper. Then I discovered daily mail readers!

I wouldn't put much stock in any media outlet from any source. It's always biased and spun in a way to appeal to it's readers/viewers.

For what it's worth, to me, the younger internet generation seems a lot smarter and a lot more cynical to these sort of stories and the average reddit user can smell most bullshit a mile off....so you;ve pretty much come to the right place.

haha yeah unfortunately though so many people my age and over read shit like that daily as gospel

[deleted]

Yeah still have a limp that is noticed more by strangers than people I know and the sun branded me as a lad.. I enjoy beer and football so yeah why not!

You were on Richard and Judy and weren't tempted to shoot anyone? Props my friend.

Question though: After being able to walk unaided, what was the one thing you did that you had always wanted to do before, but couldn't due to the severity of your condition?

Even better I was on the episode with Jerry Springer and Amanda Holden!

The whole "1st time walking unaided" was a symptom of the media blowing shit out of proportion, I had a very long period of procedures but would have plenty of time to walk around and whatnot, I did put Uni off until after it was completed so I would guess that's what I wanted to do!

I can snowboard to a pretty decent level that I definitely wouldn't have been able to do without all the ops

I don't know about shooting, but I'd have straight up bitch-slapped Springer.

I figured it'd be something like that. With a condition like yours, it didn't seem likely that one day you'd go from no walking to suddenly skipping down the road while cartoon penguins sing about your happy ending. I guess this is what has turned you off to our media (in fairness, I agree, the UK media on the whole is broken, always looking for the more sensational parts of a story to over-blow).

Out of interest, what did/do you study at Uni?

haha I only saw him briefly in a corridor and he was seriously surrounded by heavies I probably would have got 4% into the slap before being tackled.

The media thing for me was how it went from nice article in local news about something vaguely interesting to literally world wide news sensation, I was on New Zealand news apparently and through all the chinese whispers it just got less and less true, see the Sun article for how silly it got "docs grew me new leg from stump"

I studied Business & Politics at Aston Uni In Birmingham

I saw the Sun article you linked and just laughed. I've always laughed at the Sun, but it's interesting to see it from the perspective of having already read the same story in a different paper and having both stories be wildly different.

:D

Have you ever gone for a night out drinking and been so legless when you came home that you pissed all over the loo because your aim was atrocious?

I think you may already know the answer to that

Which route did you do for the Rickshaw Run? I was thinking of doing it next year with some friends, and wanted to know what it's like- what to expect, etc.

Kochi in Kerala to Shillong in Meghalaya, it was so fucking long like 4000ishk over 12 days, there were 4 of us in the shaw. Expect the shits! We drove a lot each day and India is as third world as I can imagine, it was an incredible way to see the country in its raw state though. If you or your friends know your way around an engine that would be invaluable!

De-lurking to chip in on the Rickshaw Run - took part on the second one, Kochi to Kathmandu. Amazing way to see a country, well worth doing. We went out with the idea it was going to be a bit of a jolly, but it's actually a real slog. Also, the word 'lodge' rather than any other English word such as 'hotel', etc, for a bed to sleep in for the night will get you a lot further.

Edit to add - wouldn't worry too much about the engine, whenever we broke down we found a 'mechanic' no problems. The tuktuks are so prevalent kids take them apart and put them back together. One trick that we shared with loads of teams who were having engine problems was to punch a large hole in the fuel cap. Two-stroke engines suck in air through the system, and if that little hole gets clogged (and it will) it chokes out the engine.

Our fuel cap fell off a couple of days into the journey so we bypassed that problem!

True you could break down in a field miles from anywhere and within 15 minutes there would be a crowd of 50 people with at least a dozen mechanics on the way!

Fibula hemimelia? Same here man!

Awesome! that makes 3 of us, maybe its not as rare as I thought!

Curious, where do you get your legs?

I still have them I am a non-amputee

Why didn't your parents want your leg amputated?

I think they wanted to give me a "more normal" existance than I may have had without a leg, in hindsight thats probably the wrong way round but i bear no grudges or anything, Looking back I owuldve had it off.

If I were to have any more surgery on it (I am 24 now) I think I would just have it off

Yo! It says in the sun article you linked that you went to study politics. That makes two of us! How'dya find the course? Also, what university, out of curiosity?

Aston University in Birmingham, Politics was cool but my last year of it was basically like watching the discovery channel, it all made for very interesting learning but I was never going to take it past Uni into the real world

I came here to say I have fibular hemimelia! My parents had the doctors amputate my left foot when I was 6 months old. I run, swim, and live my life completely normally. Many people don't notice for weeks of knowing me that I have a fake leg. In some ways it's a big part of my life, and in others I forget about it myself.

I used to be a wedding photographer, so I know my way around a shoot.

Awesome, I think we are 1/10 million or something so nice to meet you. I don't limp too badly any more so people that know me dont notice but new people usually say something which is fine.

I guess we are opposite sides of the same coin in that you lived how I might have and vice versa!

Do you ever find it tempting to shoot at people through walls?

edit: serious though: you said you'd rather had it off - how do you think growing up would have been different?

Occasionally I have an urge...

Hehe - in case you missed the edit I did add a serious question :) I'm curious as I've been studying adult development.

You said you'd rather had it off - how do you think growing up would have been different?

Ha, I didn't see it, I missed a lot of school and couldn't join in so much with activities like football (soccer) which looking back I really would have liked to do, I am a naturally sporty person (snowboard/golf/football) and think I would be a lot better at all those things.

I think the 1st couple of months/years as a kid would have been tough but after that it would have been over and I would have just been the kid with one leg!

If you did shoot your girlfriend, would you try and cover it up?

I think she would shoot me 1st, my cat would warn her

Has the procedure left your attected leg in a significantly weakened state? Do you have to take special care to avoid the risk of breaking it? Was your treatment all covered by the NHS?

The biggest procedures were to put pins in, break the bone then stretch it out 1 millimeter a day, the bone that grew in the gap is actually a lot stronger than "normal" bone.

I only have a shin bone in my lower right leg (and 3 toes/no ankle) and it is quite badly curved at the bottom, I dont take any precautions over it apart from wrapping the shit out of it when I snowboard, it usually breaks the skin open though when I do board which is a pain.

Nothing was covered by the NHS my folks always had medical insurance in one form or another and I was super luck for any of them to cover a "pre existing" condition like mine, it would have been in the hundreds of thousands of pounds by now.

I have no idea who any of the people in your title are.

Oscar Pistorious - Famous double amputee athlete who just killed his girlfriend.

Richard and Judy - ex-chat show hosts

Do you have any Paralympic aspirations?

I was hoping that Golf would make it into the Paralympics as I am a single figure golfer but they havent accepted it into Rio :( Other than that in the cold light of day it would mean too many sacrifices to make it worthwhile IMO

Is there a Golf circuit for people with disabilities? Or would you just compete in ordinary tournaments? As you have a single figure handicap you are surely good enough, How often do you play in tournaments if you do and do you have any significant wins?

There is a Disabled Golf Association and once a year they do the Disable British Open which is televised. They aren't running it this year apparently though which is a shame.

I play tournament golf fairly regularly at my home club, in 2008 when I had a metal frame on my leg I played the whole year on one leg and walking around on crutches, I got cut from a 12 handicap to 8 and won our clubs order of merit!! which probably says more about the quality of my opposition that it does about my talents :P

Your surname is gays? Haha. Other than that well done.

haha yep should have put that in the ama title

how's your sex life? any supermodels?

Nope!

wow, i had a different congenital condition but had three of those ilizarov contraptions, three hip grafts and many other "experimental surgeries". it was the 80's/early 90's, now it's down to a fine art. when i was a teenager i was terrified of having my leg amputated (it was always something they talked about) but looking back i think it could have saved some grief. or maybe it would just be a different kind of grief.

i wish i had known people like yourself when i was a teenager and felt like i was the only one going through this sort of thing.

Yeah I was under the same impression as I had the option to amputate when I was about 11 but how do you make that decision as a kid?

I had 2 sets of ilizarov and feel the same way that it may well have saved a lot of pain but you never know, best thing is just to carry on looking forwards imo!

When do you plan on shooting someone, Mr. Gays?

When someone breaks into my bathroom at 4am

What have you specifically seen to put you off British media?

Just the sexing up of things mostly to get them to sell more paper/advertising etc, when I was famous for 10 minutes what was in the media was fairly well removed from the real story.

Personally I also hate how much influence things like the Sun have over a lot of the UK population

Do you think Oscar should have been allowed to participate in the last olympics?

Yes 100% the man has no legs, to me that is argument over I think its bollocks some of the ways they were trying to block it - danger to other athletes etc.

His situation was very unique I think the paralympics have grown in stature significantly so I don't think we will see very many other athletes trying to cross the divide in the future.

What's your outlook on life?

Play the hand you get dealt, you only get one! No point moping about bad things that happened that you have no control over just have to get on with life and make it as best you can!

Do you find you have a higher pain tolerance now or can you just deal with it better because you've gone through so much with stretching your leg?

From your other reply you said you'd rather just have it off. I realise the stretching process would have sucked absolute balls but is it not better that you now have two usable legs rather than one and a prosthetic (although to be fair I'm under the impression that prosthetics have come along very far so it wouldn't be too much of a hindrance)?

I think I can just deal with it better, when I had a frame on I fell over and broke my femur which fucking hurt so that gave me a pretty good benchmark on pain.

My leg is usable in that I can walk on it/play golf/snowboard but it does hurt and cause issues a lot of the time. I also have to buy 2 sets of shoes whenever I go shoe shopping as my left foot is a UK 12 and my right is a UK 4!!! that £££ adds up...

What range of motion do you have in the joints in your right leg compared to your left?

my right leg extends to flat (i think everyone else's goes a little past flat) and then bends to 90degrees no more!

What animals do you ship? Also have you seen the amazing Spider-Man? The article reminds me of that film.

All sorts of household pets, we have shipped sea monkeys before, some people have more money than sense!

Like small mammals and reptiles? Sea monkeys are awful just go to a local pong and get some tadpoles

Yes exactly

Wow. This is truly remarkable. I'm really impressed by your ability to tolerate that pain for so long. I don't know much about that device, but since it was drilled into your leg, did you develop any sort of infections or other complications during the straightening process? Your leg looks fantastic and I wish you the best of luck with your goals! :)

A few minor infections, I had over 20 pin sites so keeping them all sterile we basically impossible, nothing worse than some sore skin though really. I had a couple of complications one was falling over and breaking my femur and the other was the cage started to dig into the back of my leg so they had to reset it under general anaesthetic

Many Americans support moving to a single-payer healthcare system, similar to what they have in the UK.

Since you've had a lot of experience with it, what is your opinion of the UK's healthcare system?

Well I would be a lot further back in the whole process if I had been on the NHS so would have spent a great deal of time in a wheelchair which would have killed me (very active/outgoing).

I think it fundamentally provides a great service especially when you compare healthcare in the USA - I have no idea how I would pay for hospital costs if I had an accident or something like that whereas here they patch you up and send you home. I have been lucky to always have insurance for my condition but I really shudder to think where I would be now without it.

Any complaints about long wait times or incompetant doctors? That's the primary concern for us Americans. We get a lot of horror stories from the UK and Canada, but they're usually heresay.

I think wait times for procedures are generally pretty shit, a friend of mine damaged his cruciate ligaments last year and has been waiting ever since to have surgery on it, I think by the time it gets done it will be over a year since the accident.

I don't think the doctors are incompetent or anything like that the issue is just how to care for so many sick people waiting is always going to happen

I appreciate the honest responses!

If you're interested in a little input from our end, it comes down to this: 20% of the US population receives the best medical care in the world. The mileage varies for the rest of us.

Yeah I would love to get a better understanding of the US system all we ever really hear is that its outrageously over priced and no one has insurance. I figured that those who can afford it would get unparalleled service

Most people get insurance through their employers, which covers most day-to-day expenses. A big operation has a good chance of bankrupting your family.

If you don't have insurance, any trip to the hospital will bankrupt your family.

Private health insurance ($2,000 US per month, minimum) covers pretty much everything imagineable, and lets you access services that other people can't.

I find that utterly incredible I remember seeing a picture of a guy on his bike who was hit by a car, he got something like $150k bill, how do people like that pay?

They don't, they file bankruptcy instead.

fuuuck thats harsh

[deleted]

Yes I think as a population we are significantly more stabby than shooty, that being said I haven't stabbed anyone yet.

Don't take this as a suggestion, but you'd get a lot more upvotes if the AMA were "I was born with the same leg condition as Oscar Pistorious and also accidentally shot my bitch of a wife..."

I'm curious about the pet thing. What do you actually do? Presumably, the actual pet-moving is done by a scheduled airline, the paperwork by a vet, &c.

haha yes but my SO probably wouldn't appreciate it for the sake of some karma ;)

We organise the whole thing, origin and destination services and book the pets on the airlines, a lot of airlines will only accept pets as cargo so you really need to be a transport company to be able to do so.

Are you saying that due to the operations and not having your leg amputated you have a higher pain threshold than say for example a person who had his/her legs amputated at a young age?

Then Sir I ask you this.... Who would win in a game of Roshambo, You or Oscar Pistorious?

Not necessarily but I would say I have probably experienced "more pain" than someone who had one or two operations at an early age.

Id win

Yet? We will be watching you.

I was wondering why it was taking so long for those flowers to get delivered next door....

But have you been to the Olympics?

No, missed a trick last year really

No questions, just a solid "You're my hero."

Why thank you

What are the two world record attempts that you are trying to organize?

"Longest seated golf shot" which I have approval for from Guinness, the existing record is 143 metres, which is ridiculously easy to beat, the second is longest golf shot standing on one leg.

Which leg you gonna use?

The good one

Do people buy pets from you online? What is the most common ones you sell? How do yoy deliver them?

We don't sell any we organise door-to-door international transport for them, ie when someone moves home they need to move their pet and we provide that.

What is the weirdest/most special pet you transported?

Sea Monkeys has to be up there.

Orlando Bloom's 3 legged dog as well...

"I was born with the same leg condition as Oscar Pistorious and haven't shot anyone yet".

Allegedly good chap, can't be throwing around accusations like that.

Anyways my question is, how much do your legs give to your height? And what is your height vs actual height?

I don't think there is anything alleged shooting wise in his case he has admitted shooting her.

My height is 6,1 on my left leg and 6,0 standing on both, bit of a pain how there is still a difference but c'est la vie!

Do you have a girlfriend.

Yep!

Is your leg bone normal, stronger, or more prone to breaking due to the stretching?

The "new bone" apparently is very much stronger, not that I would like to test it to breaking point!

Read the article and realized you live like 10 minutes away from me. I am not a creepy stalker.

Where do you live?

Im sorry "how bad the UK media can be"? Explain please

Because we dont buy Pistorious' bullshit story?

No sorry I meant that I have first hand experience of the UK media taking a story like mine and fabricating 99% of it to sell more news

Haven't shot anyone...yet? So you're saying there's a chance...

Well there's always a chance I suppose

Organize*

**organise we speak the queens English ITT

Complains about the UK media, makes an awful comment about Oscar pistorious.

Lets wait to see the outcome of the trial.

What awful comment?

[deleted]

Whoa dude that was pretty harsh.

what did it say?