AN Army officer who was the first female British soldier to lose a limb in Afghanistan is to ski competitively.

Captain Kate Philp, 32, who is based at Larkhill and lives in Harnham, lost her left leg below the knee when her vehicle was blown up.

But she swore she would not let her injury stop her living life to the full and now she has joined the Combined Services Disabled Ski Team (CSDST).

After the incident, doctors at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham gave her the choice of keeping her leg but possibly never being able to walk on it, or having it amputated.

Capt Philp said: “I asked ‘with a prosthetic will I be able to run, play tennis and ski?’ When they said yes that was my decision – function was absolutely the key for me.”

She got her first artificial leg the following March and was walking without a stick by May. Since then she has had two further operations and had her first skiing lesson two months ago.

“I can’t speak with much experience from before, but it’s not been very difficult to adapt and I’m very fortunate that I have my knee,” she said.

“I like the adrenalin rush of skiing and the speed, although I would like to develop a bit of style to it. At the moment I just go as fast as possible without much style, but I enjoy the element of freedom and getting this far was a personal goal for me, so we shall see where it goes.”

Capt Philp is adjutant for the young officers branch with the Royal School of Artillery in Larkhill and recently featured on Ty Pennington’s Homes for the Brave on Sky Home UKTV, when her Harnham house got a makeover.

The CSDST is a team of 12, who are all serving soldiers in the Armed Forces with a permanent disability from injuries they got while on an operational tour. They will compete in a range of military, national and international races throughout the year, depending on the skills of the individual.

Their first race will be the Royal Engineers Championships in December in Austria and the team have their sights set on the 2014 Paralympics.