Help from firm which advises Macca's wife

From the Echo, first published Tuesday 29th Mar 2005.

"An orthopaedic company which supplied prosthetic limbs to Heather Mills McCartney has joined the Daily Echo's campaign to help a soldier who lost both legs in a suicide bombing in Iraq.

Let's Help Neil gives our backing to a fund set up by colleagues of Corporal Neil Heritage following the incident last November.

The 24-year-old was working with Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) in Camp Dogwood, just south of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber blew up a car just two feet away from him.

He lost both legs above the knee instantly and spent two months in hospital before being transferred to London's Military Defence Rehabilitation Centre.

Neil's colleagues at London-based EOD set up the Neil Heritage Fund to pay for £30,000 hightech prosthetics to replace the ones he received on the NHS and for adaptations to the Napier Road home in Hamworthy, Poole, he shares with partner Claire Renshaw and her son Callum, five.

Among the number of calls we received from local companies wanting to do something to help Neil, was one from Ringwood-based Dorset Orthopaedic.

The company, which supplied Heather Mills McCartney with her prosthetic limbs and regularly sees the former model for checkups, wanted to offer Neil a free consultation.

Marketing manager Victoria Bel Gil said the private clinic wanted to help after reading about Neil's plight in the Daily Echo.

She added: "I would like to invite Neil for a free of charge consultation. We would be able to give him advice on his future limb treatment and requirements and also some advice on our experiences with amputees in his situation.

"Perhaps we could even put him in contact with support groups in the region."

Neil's partner Claire said she was touched by the response.

"That's really nice of them," she said.

"I'm really pleased by the response that we've had. You put something in the paper but you don't expect to get so much from it.

"Neil's had some old friends that have phoned up as well that he hasn't heard from for ages. It's been really nice of people to think of us." "