A MARTIAL arts fanatic who is having a leg amputated is asking friends to guess the weight of the limb being removed to raise money for a hospital.

Peter Rowswell, who is undergoing surgery at Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital on Monday, says people find his unusual competition "mad or funny".

He was born with two club feet, but his left leg has deteriorated so much that he is in constant agony despite taking a daily cocktail of painkillers.

"It's gone too far for corrective procedures and the benefits of amputating my left leg beneath the knee far outweigh reconstruction surgery," said Peter, aged 30, of Langport.

"It was quite an easy decision to go ahead with it because I'm suffering so much.

"My wife, Carly, is probably more nervous than me, but she's supportive as it's going to give me a better quality of life. My daughter Skyla (aged three) is too young to understand."

Peter, who works for a Yeovil firm making garage doors, will be in a wheelchair for three weeks after the operation and is likely to be off work until early summer, by which time he will have got used to his prosthetic leg.

He said: "I'm looking forward to when I'll be able to get back in the gym to practice martial arts.

"I try not to let my leg hold me back, but at the moment it's pretty tough because it hurts and leaves me hobbling and limping afterwards.

"I guess the adrenalin takes over, but I'm determined to do what I want to do."

Any money Peter raises from his 'guess the weight of my leg' challenge will go to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, in London, where he has been treated since birth.

"I'm very grateful to them for everything - but I was pleased to prove them wrong after they told my parents after my birth that I would never walk.," he said.

"My friends reckon the competition is either mad or funny."

Anyone wishing to take part in the competition or to make a donation should go to Just Giving.

Peter's determination matches that of rugby player Gareth Hodgson who had part of his leg amputated in the 1990s after a freak training ground accident but later returned to play for Wellington.