A PENSIONER who lost his leg and half his hand in a horrific tractor accident — and later picked up a superbug infection — has started to walk again in an “inspirational” recovery.

A year ago today, Alastair McKnight, 65, was driving a tractor and mower on the Great Tew Estate, near Chipping Norton, when a rear wheel struck something and sent him flying from his seat.

As the tractor pinned him to the ground, the mower severed his left leg almost clean off above the knee and tore into his hand.

The father-of-one was airlifted to the John Radcliffe Hospital where he spent two months recovering after undergoing life-saving surgery.

Today, he is able to walk again.

He said: “I was as helpless as a newborn baby when I first came round after the operation. I had broken both arms, the back of my left hand was chopped out and the elbow was smashed. All I had was one leg and an arm in a splint — I could n’t feed or wash myself and I couldn’t go to the toilet.”

In March, Mr McKnight, of Cross Leys, Chipping Norton, returned to hospital for another operation on his left hand, which had to be reconstructed after the accident using the skin, bones and tendons from his amputated foot.

He later contracted MRSA, which left him bedridden for nearly a month, but it only proved to be a minor setback.

Fitted with a hi-tech prosthetic leg and following months of physiotherapy and rehabilitation, Mr McKnight is now able to walk again, albeit slowly.

He said: “I’ve moved on considerably. I can walk on two sticks and I have got a new car. I used to have a manual, now I have an automatic. The only adaptation is a spinner on the steering wheel.

“It’s easy to get frustrated, but I think I am making good progress.

“The danger is you take your impatience out on the people who are helping you.

“All you do is go with the flow — you have to accept what you can and can’t do.

“My goal is simply to become more independent.”

Mr McKnight said he had been inspired by Reach for the Sky, the story of RAF pilot Sir Douglas Bader, who served in the Second World War despite losing both legs in an air crash in 1931.

He said: “I read the book when I was a child and then a friend brought it to me in hospital and of course I read it again.

“In those days, they were making false legs out of sheets of tin, fitted with bolts and buckles. He’s a very inspirational figure to me.”

John Radcliffe nurse Karen Russell described Mr McKnight’s ongoing recovery as “an inspiration”.

She said: “Alastair was a lovely patient and we are all delighted he is making such great progress. I’m sure his amazing positive attitude has helped him with his recovery.”