Family fill wish and throw prosthetic into sea – find it 30 miles away

Family who fulfilled sailor’s dying wish by throwing his prosthetic leg into the sea in the hope it would end up in Ibiza – find it 30 miles away in Weston-super-Mare

• Michael Harris, 66, died in December following 20-year career in merchant navy
• Final request to his three children was for prosthetic limb to be thrown into sea

A family fulfilled a dying sailor’s wish of throwing his prosthetic leg into the sea in the hope it would sail to Ibiza – only for it to wash up 30 miles away.

Father-of-three Michael Harris, 66, died in December following a 20-year career in the merchant navy.

The sailor had a love for travelling and his final request, albeit half jokingly, was to ask that his children take his prosthetic leg and send it out to sea.

But daughter Natalie Denning, 41, and sons Ricci, 35, and Daniel Harris, 43, cast the leg away from Michael’s hometown of Lydney, Gloucestershire, on January 19.

They hoped it would travel far afield, potentially somewhere such as the Spanish island of Ibiza. 

Father-of-three Michael Harris (centre), 66, died in December following a 20-year career in the merchant navy

However, the prosthetic leg travelled just 30 miles before washing ashore in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset

Natalie had attached a note to the leg, but did not expect to hear about the prosthetic limb again so soon and were ‘shocked’ it had washed up so quickly.

She said: ‘I didn’t think we’d hear anything about it so soon but when my brother messaged saying it had been found, I was shocked.

‘One lady who stumbled across it in Weston is a marine biologist and she said it could take a month before it gets out to sea beyond the estuary as the tide keeps dragging it back in.

‘It still seems to be around Weston at the moment so we’re hoping it can be pushed a bit further out to get it into the sea.

‘It’s been so lovely and I hope to god it keeps going as it’s made people smile.’

Michael’s leg was amputated in 2017 due to a circulation problem, before he had the prosthetic fitted.

A picture from a video taken by daughter Natalie Denning of her brothers sending their late dad’s prosthetic leg on its journey

His daughter said his final request might have been meant as a joke, but the children are wanting to take it seriously.

She added: ‘Daniel had taken dad for radiotherapy and as they were driving home he said he’d always wanted to go travelling again and so rather comically asked if we could send his leg round the world.

‘We nearly didn’t do it but we thought, “this is going to be funny”. It’s kept him alive for us as well – we just hope it gets further than Weston!’

The family are hoping the leg ends up somewhere exotic this time around.

Natalie said: ‘I’m hoping it’ll go off to maybe Ibiza. If someone wants to get it out of Weston on a direct boat to Ibiza that’d be amazing!

‘We’ve also said wherever it ends up we’ll definitely go out to visit as that’ll be hilarious.’

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