AN ‘incredible’ teenage girl rebuilding her life after a leg amputation is the focus of a fundraiser to buy her a special vehicle.

Animal-loving Maddie Jervis, aged 14, was determined to get out independently into the fields near her home in Llanteg to feed her beloved horses.

She can now achieve that through the loan of a six-wheeled Gator on which she can carry hay to the animals.

There are now plans to raise £11,000 to buy the Gator, and family friend Emma Richards has already brought in £5,000 from a virtual Lands End to John O’Groats 875-mile run.

Last August, Maddie was diagnosed with bone cancer and at the end of May had her leg amputated at the hip at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in London.

Within a week, she was home from hospital, determined to be home with her parents Rachael and Alun and their menagerie of animals.

Maddie, a student at Ysgol Dyffryn Taf, Whitland, is an accomplished sportswoman, competing in tetrathlon on her horse Eyros with the Vale of Taf Pony Club.

Later this year, she will have a prosthetic leg fitted and plans to return to riding, shooting and swimming, looking towards Paralympic competition.

“On the medical front, things are looking positive,” said mum Rachael. “Currently we’re having ups and downs, as Maddie is trying to find her ‘new normal’. But she always knew it was going to be hard.”

Maddie’s ultimate ambition was to join the Royal Navy as a naval warfare officer, and she is now looking at ways she can still be a part of the service.

“She very much knows what she wants,” said Rachael.

The John Deere Gator was loaned to Maddie by Matthew Blackburn, depot manager at the Narberth branch of farm equipment supplier, the Tallis Amos Group, and when she fell in love with the utility vehicle, he offered £1,200 off its price to help the fundraising on its way.

Meanwhile, seven-times Ironman Emma is two-thirds of the way through her ultra marathon run for Maddie, and earlier this year, she and friends Steph Waring, Tracey Thomas. Mel Morgan and Katherine Devonald Brace raised £1,600 for Bone Cancer Research through sponsorship for a 150km swimathon, which was put on hold by the coronavirus outbreak.

“I am absolutely in awe of Maddie,” said mum-of-five Emma, “She is an incredible girl and the way that she and her parents have coped with the whole situation is amazing.”

To donate to the fund, go to www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/emma-richards-369