Ben Neil is aiming to walk to his seat at Nottingham Forest's City Ground.

An inspirational Newark man is aiming to reach a personal goal to walk to his beloved football team's match on his two prosthetic legs.

Ben Neil has type 1 diabetes and, due to health complications, had a below knee amputation of the right leg in September 2017, and his left leg amputated in May this year.

Now he has set himself a challenge of walking unaided on his two prosthetic legs at Forest's opening home game tomorrow against West Bromwich Albion.

When Ben's right leg was amputated, he was walking on his new prosthetic leg by the end of January.

He then set out a bucket list of things to do before he had his left leg amputated, including walking his now wife, Kirsty, down the aisle, going to Las Vegas, enjoying a Nottingham Forest VIP day and experiencing the entirety of Thorpe Park.

Ben's left leg was amputated on May 2 this year. The whole process happened in something of a whirlwind for Ben and Kirsty as he received a call from Queens Medical Centre to ask him to come in for his pre-op assessment on Monday April 29.

He went in for the pre-op on that Wednesday and the doctor said he was available, they could perform the operation the next day.

Kirsty was working away at the time, so Ben had to phone her to get her to come home as they had to be at QMC at 7am the next day.

Ben left hospital six days after his operation and he said the adjustment didn't take long once he became used to bearing weight on his two prosthetic leg, which was fitted on July 17, and he was able to walk unaided almost straight away.

Ben said: "It's all about being motivated and setting yourself goals.

"I've very determined, a lot of people would come home from a physio session and just sit down, but I've been getting straight on with my exercises."

Kirsty said: "It's been really tough, but it's all been worth it in the end."

Ben, a Nottingham Forest FC fan, has been blogging about his experiences, as well as those of Kirsty's as she prepares to run her first marathon.

When he revealed to his followers that he had to miss Forest's last game of the season as he was in hospital, his followers set up a GoFundMe page to buy him and Kirsty a new season ticket for the 2019/2020 season, which raised an impressive £1,200.

Ben, who now lives in Clipstone, said: "I'm so grateful, these are people who've never even met me before."

When his left leg was amputated, Ben set himself a target of walking to his new seat in the lower Brian Clough stand at the City Ground.

"The doctors said it wasn't possible, but this will be a big day for me.

"I just want people to know that you can reach your goals, anything is possible. Social media can be a dark and negative place but I want to spread a positive message."

To raise money and awareness of diabetes complications, Kirsty will be running the Nottingham Christmas Marathon on November 30.

She said: "I've always wanted to run a marathon but always found excuses not to, but after all Ben has been through, I said it wasn't fair for him to go through all this alone so this is the year I'm doing it."

Kirsty said she didn't enjoy running at school and could barely run a mile, but now she's running eight or nine miles at a time comfortably.

She added: "I'm really enjoying running now, it's a time for myself to just be me. I'm hoping to finish in around five and a half hours."

You can make a donation to Kirsty's marathon challenge by logging on to her JustGiving page here.

To follow the couple's story, visit their blog at https://operationmarathon.home.blog/