Maggots gave me hope

Ray (pictured with his wife Ann), is looking forward to driving again after successful maggot therapy.

Ray is diabetic. He recently had amputations on both his legs and welcomed the maggot treatment so he can take pressure from his wife Ann and start driving again.

“For a long time I wore the wrong shoes, not realising my feet were being damaged. My toes went black, I was in a lot of pain. When they told me I’d need to have both legs amputated I was in shock.

“In hospital I didn’t think I was going to pull through. But once I came home and the skin nurses came, there was a different vibe, they encouraged me. They told me how quickly the maggots work to get rid of the dead stuff and let the wound heal. I started to feel positive again.

“Having maggots in my legs didn’t bother me, I knew they were doing a job. Katy and the team have made me more determined than ever to get back to as much normality as I can. I’ve been married 44 years and my wife has had to do a lot. I want to get back to driving so the maggots are helping me to do that.”

Natural born healers: maggot trivia

Maggots have been used all over the world for centuries, including on battlefields. They went out of fashion as a treatment because they couldn’t be sterilised, so risked infection. This was the advent of antibiotics - but maggots produce natural antibiotics that bacteria don’t become resistant to.

The larvae used today are specially bred from green bottle flies in laboratories, using eggs which have been treated to remove bacteria.

The green bottle fly provides the maggots that heal people.