Aiming for gold... girl of 8 who lost legs to brain bug

A GIRL of eight who lost her legs to meningitis is being tipped to win Paralympic gold, weeks after taking up the martial art of taekwondo.

Maisie Catt had her legs amputated as a baby – one above the knee and one below .

She began taekwondo in January after watching her brother Finlay, five, having lessons.

Now, after three months training, she has been selected to join an elite training programme.

Her mother Sharon, 41, believes nothing will now hold Maisie back after her life was transformed when she started wearing prosthetic blades a year ago.

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Sharon, an activity support worker, said: “Maisie watched Finlay having lessons from the side and just said, ‘I want to do that’.

“We spoke to his instructor at the club and they agreed and since then she has just got stuck in.

“She started after Christmas and loves it.

“Everybody at the club treats her exactly the same as every other child and that is all we wanted.”

Maisie has been selected for the limb deficiency category and has dreams of one day competing at the Paralympics, with the sport set to be included in the games for the first time in 2020. Sharon, of Mirfield, near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, added: “Maisie’s instructor was contacted by a member of the Great Britain talent squad who had heard about her story.

“We went down for a lesson and at the end they came over and congratulated her.

The Korean martial art requires speciality head-high, jumping and spinning kicks at high speed.

The Paralympic version is adapted for athletes with impairments.

Maisie wore prosthetic legs until she was seven, when funding for blades became available through the NHS.

Sharon said: “Maisie got her first set of prosthetics when she was nine months old and had to learn to walk with them.

“Last year, we got the opportunity to try the blades and they have transformed her life.

“Her friends would ask about them once and since then she is treated like everybody else. Her disability has never been an issue.

“She just wants to people.

“She wants others like her to go try anything.

“Anybody can do anything they set their mind to, in spite of any difficulties.” inspire other