Band of Builders helps ten-year-old quad amputee

Band of Builders announces it has helped Luke Mortimer who, after contracting meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia, lost his arms and legs.

Mortimer thanked the team of volunteer tradespeople who have completed a project to make significant adaptations to his home in Embsay, North Yorkshire.

Mortimer has also appeared on ITV’s This Morning, with his dad, he told hosts Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond about the project. He said: “I would like to thank the Band of Builders team for making my life so much easier around my home.

“I can remember that when they first came the house looked like a wreck, but then within a few weeks, it looked like a dream home that you only see on TV and I still can’t thank them enough.”

Mortimer’s dad is a builder, and although he had started work on making adaptations himself, he reached out to Band of Builders for help, as the bungalow had previously been adapted for a man who was paralysed from the waist down.

However, upon his passing, his widow oversaw work to rip out some of the adaptations – so this project saw work to reinstate some of the original adaptations and some significant renovation work to make life easier for Luke.

Band of Builders operations director Tony Steel thanked all the volunteers who donated their time and also the local community, which rallied round with donations of food and drinks to keep the volunteers fed during the project.

Steel said: “The look on Luke’s face made it all worthwhile,” said Tony. “Luke is an inspiration to us all, and it has been our pleasure to help his dad complete the renovations to the home – and therefore make the quality of Luke’s home life just that bit better.”

Mortimer fell ill in December 2019 and was diagnosed with type Y meningococcal meningitis – a rare but serious bacterial infection that causes the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord to become inflamed.

After the removal of his limbs, Luke underwent many more surgeries to cover what had survived with a covering of skin; 50% of his body had no skin, so the remaining 50% had to be donor skin.

He spent nearly five months in hospital before he was able to go home.

Since then, he has endured endless sessions of physiotherapy and rehabilitation with a trademark beaming smile.

He has learned to walk – and run – on prosthetics. And, thanks to fundraising and donations from an army of well-wishers, he has received the first of his robotic ‘hero’ arms to allow him to do more for himself. The cost is approaching £15,000, and they have to be replaced every two years while Luke is still growing.

His family have been overwhelmed by the support and all the different fundraising activities that continue to take place for Luke.