Limb: Cpl Andre Garthwaite (Picture: EPA)

A soldier who was badly injured in Afghanistan has been given a new start in life thanks to a bionic arm he controls with his brain.

Cpl Andrew Garthwaite, 26, is believed to be the first person in Britain to be fitted with a thought-controlled prosthetic limb.

It involved hours of delicate surgery at an Austrian hospital which involved having his nerve system rewired.

Now, after months of intensive use, he has mastered how to control his new limb with his mind.


Cpl Garthwaite, from South Tyneside, lost his right arm in a grenade attack in Helmand Province in September 2010.

He said: ‘When you haven’t had a thumb or a finger for the last three years and then all of a sudden you start feeling stuff, it’s a totally weird feeling – so you have got to train your brain to move this hand.’



His new arm looks natural but it makes robotic noises and, in a careless moment, it can spin 360 degrees. ‘That is my party trick,’ he joked.

Cpl Garthwaite is looking forward to greater independence with the limb, which was developed by bionics company Otto Bock in Vienna.

‘There’s no point looking back because you can never turn back time,’ he said.

‘I am still very lucky to be here and, with this new life I’ve got, hopefully I can be very successful in it.’