VETERANS at a Help for Heroes recovery centre have been inspired by a visit from two members of an all-amputee crew who took part in an Atlantic rowing challenge.

Lee Spencer told veterans at Phoenix House recovery centre that despite losing a leg after a horrific accident when he got out to help at a motorway crash, he is still capable of incredible challenges.

Mr Spencer, 46, was part of this year’s Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge in the Row2Recovery team – crossing the Atlantic in 46 days, six hours and 49 minutes, arriving in Antigua on February 4 – and are the first all-amputee crew to complete the challenge.

He said: “Help for Heroes put the team together and I met my teammate Cayle Royce after he took part in a Row2Recovery two years ago.

“I was at a rehabilitation centre and when I got the chance to be selected for the next row team I jumped at it.

“I’m an adventurous person and it is just the sort of thing I would have done before my leg came off.”

Mr Spencer was driving back to work as a Royal Marine Commando in December 2014 after Christmas leave on the M3 at around midnight when he approached a car that had been in an accident.

He said: “It was pointing at the central reservation straddling the middle and fast lanes with its hazard lights on.

“I pulled onto the hard shoulder to make sure everyone was okay, and more importantly that no one was in the car.”

But Mr Spencer had taken just a couple of steps when a car drove straight into the other parked car at 70mph – which smashed into him and sent him flying 40m onto the grassy verge.

Mr Spencer said he knew he was lucky to be alive – and despite losing a leg he has kept a positive mindset.

He said: “I’m still the same person, capable of anything I was before – that’s what we tried to tell the guys at Phoenix House.”

Phoenix House events co-ordinator Michaela Slay who recently returned from the Blood, Sweat and Gears cycle ride across South Africa, said the mental strength required to row the Atlantic was enormous.

She said: “Physically, with the right type and amount of training, you can prepare for any endurance challenge. But the inner strength required by those guys to keep going, when there is nothing around you but water and no help or support anywhere close by, was what was most inspirational for me.”

To donate to Row2Recovery, Prince Harry’s Endeavour Fund, Help for Heroes and Blesma – a charity for limbless veterans – visit www.row2recovery.com.