Woman's limb artificially regrown

Liz Coveney is three months into a 12-month recovery process and is able to exercise more easily A Hampshire woman has become one of the first patients in the country to have part of a limb artificially regrown in a laboratory and put back in her body.

Liz Coveney, 50, from Hythe, had holes in the cartilage in her right knee.

She underwent two operations. Firstly a pea-sized piece of cartilage containing 200,000 cells was taken from her knee.

In a Belgian laboratory these were then grown into four million cells and placed back in her knee at Spire Southampton Hospital.

'Extremely uncomfortable'

Before the operations on the inch-long holes in her cartilage were carried out, Mrs Coveney was in constant pain and found it difficult to walk.

She said: "It was extremely uncomfortable and stairs really were the bane of my life.

"You notice it when you're standing up and sitting down, and getting out of the car.