Bryony Gordon's Mad World Podcast with Sonny McCartney
Photographer Sonny McCartney has told how losing a leg in a motorbike accident gave him a second chance at life.
McCartney was riding his Harley Davidson in 2016 when he was hit by a car that turned out of a side road.
Doctors were forced to amputate his lower left leg. As he recovered physically, he developed anxiety and mental health issues. “I went through all those stages - anger, depression, happiness, sadness, everything,” he told The Telegraph.
“You think to yourself, ‘Am I a bad person? Did I deserve this?’ Fair enough if I was going a million miles an hour, fair enough if I was on a superbike with no thought about anyone else in the world.”
Speaking to Bryony Gordon for the second series of her award-winning podcast, Mad World, the nephew of Sir Paul McCartney said an encounter with another amputee had a profound effect on him.
A post shared by Sonny McCartney (@sonnymccartney) on Jul 10, 2017 at 12:02am PDT
He met Victoria Milligan, who lost a leg in a speedboat accident that claimed the lives of her husband, Nick, and their eight-year-old daughter, Emily. Her three other children were also injured.
McCartney said: “I’ve been fortunate enough to meet her, and just hearing her story really got me. In that single instant she became a widow, an amputee and and a single mother. And that’s where you’ve got to count your blessings, because things could be a lot worse.
“I know this is corny as hell, but I kind of call myself Sonny 2.0. I could have easily not survived. Now I’ve been given this chance, don’t waste it.”
On the first anniversary of his crash, McCartney posted a picture of his prosthetic leg on his Instagram account. He has returned to work as a music and fashion photographer, with Ronnie Wood, Liam Gallagher and Niall Horan among his subjects.
The main thing that has helped him through his anxiety, he said, is being honest with friends and family about how feels.
He explained: “I just gave up holding it in. I said, ‘You know what? I’m not doing too well. My mind is in a thousand pieces right now. I literally want to run out of here - or hop out of here.’ And once I was able to open up and talk to people about my feelings, it helped me so much…
“Don’t be afraid to really let people know how you are, because at the end of the day we are all human. None of us are perfect and fine all the time.”
