Craig Bowler climbed a 30ft electricity pylon near the M1 in January last year, was electrocuted and thrown to the ground after receiving a horrendous 33,000-volt shock.

He was left lying on the brink of death on the freezing cold night for four hours before a neighbour found him.

He was rushed to hospital where doctors saved his life.

But after a two-week coma, he came round to the news that he had lost both legs and an arm.

"My arm was so burnt it puffed up to twice its size, my right leg was so badly injured they had to amputate it immediately and in the end my left was too burnt to save as well," said Craig, aged 29, from Olney.

The former bricklayer, who achieved local notoriety when he streaked during a Wimbledon football game at the National Hockey Stadium in 2003, said depression had got the better of him before the attempt.

But he wasn't going to mess up his second chance at life.

"I was just happy that I was alive," he added. His condition had stabilised by April 2007 and he was told he could get prosthetic legs, but it would take him up to two years to learn how to use them.

Craig stunned doctors by walking on his own in six weeks.
"I guess it's just all in the mind. My balance was totally out when I started because of my arm, but I'm just one of those people that gets on with things and I was determined to walk again," he said.

Craig now says he lives a near-normal life – he works in The Castle pub in the town and is engaged after meeting his fiancée whilst recuperating.

"There's not a lot I can't do. I am more happy now, and a lot of good has come out of this.

"If I had the choice to have my arms and legs back and be like I was, or carry on as I am – I would carry on like this.

"There was no point in feeling sorry for myself."

And Craig is now using his experience to help others. He is doing a sponsored two-and-a-half-mile walk around Olney on June 21 for Operation Sunshine, a Milton Keynes-based national charity aiming to bring joy and healing into the lives of children and adults with severe phyisical and mental disadvantages.

"I will concentrate more on charity work in the future," he added. "I get a lot of satisfaction out of it and I might even become a counsellor one day."

If you would like to sponsor Craig, log on to www.operationsunshine.org or ring 07912 026069.