Jim Al-Khalili

On radio, listeners might be hearing sort of buzzing and squeaks during our conversation.

That is your arm moving, flexing as you're moving in your chair.

It's a great sound, actually.

Yeah.

Well, Jim, you were discharged in November 2020, four months after the accident, but continuing with dialysis as an outpatient, which, by the way, you were told you'd need for the rest of your life.

But in fact, you made a remarkable recovery.

Exactly.

Extraordinary.

That's incredible.

And how about your condition more generally?

I mean, I gather it wasn't long before you were back competing in triathlons, for heaven's sakes.

How did you get on?

That puts the rest of us to shame with our now waning New Year's resolutions.

Let's talk about the practicalities of getting you literally back on your feet.

Orthotics played a big part in that, didn't it?

Then on the arm front, there were different prosthetic options available, but this was...

A particularly difficult case because of how much of the limb you'd lost.

So talk me through your prosthesis journey, as it were, from those early days of the very basic version through to the surgery that you had last year.

So using back muscles, for example.

But now you have a more permanent connection between the limb and your body.