Many young boys dream that they will once day be the owner of a Mercedes. But a teenager from Berkshire had a slightly different dream, which the Formula One team were able to make come true.Matthew James, 14, is a Formula one fan and was born without his left hand, so came up with the idea of having a bionic hand. He contacted the Mercedes group, sending a touching letter to Ross Brawn, boss of the F1 team Mercedes GP Petronas asking for £35,000 to pay for the hand.
In return, Matthew said that he would allow them to sponsor the limb by placing a Mercedes logo on it, much like those found adorning the side of the multi million pound formula one vehicles.
Mercedes replied after reading the letter and agreed to help him raise the money. They also teamed up with prosthetics specialists Touch Bionics to create the hand, the iLimb Pulse, which is strong enough to hold a load of 14 stone.
Matthew went to the Touch Bionics headquarters to learn to use the hand after it was made and said,
“It is just amazing. My old artificial hand had a pretty basic open-close mechanism similar to a clamp.
But with this one I can do everything. It also looks really cool – the outer-shell is see-through so you can actually see the mechanics working.”
The companies have also waived the £25,000 fee usually charged for a service of this kind.
The new hand can even feel vibrations and has a wide range of natural movements. It works by taking instructions from the residual limb. It normally takes a while for patients to get to grips with it but Matthew progress is said to be outstanding.
Matthew says he cannot wait to get back to school to show all his friends but before that he has been invited to the Mercedes headquarters to meet racing driver Michael Schumacher.