A SURVIVOR of the 7/7 bombing has been fitted with a clip-on arm that fuses directly with her own skin and bone.

Kira Mason, 51, lost her arm in the attacks, during which she was standing opposite bomber Shehzad Tanweer on the Circle line when he detonated his bomb in July 2005.

Surgeons carried out a pioneering operation during which a titanium alloy rod was attached to a bone in her arm, which protrudes through her skin. The skin has healed naturally and formed a protective seal around it, allowing prostheses to be attached.

The technique, intraosseous transcutaneous amputation prosthesis, or Itap, is based on reindeer antlers, which naturally grow through the skin without any problems.

Norbert Kang, the plastic surgeon who fitted Mrs Mason's implant at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, said the technique "does away with the need for cumbersome straps and sockets". It also avoids the infections and pressure sores previously associated with attempts to fuse metal with bone.

Mrs Mason, from Peterborough, said: "My grandson likes to call me a cyborg. But the implant looks and feels much better than the prostheses I'd tried before, and is so convenient. Now I just wake up in the morning, clip on the arm and away I go."

Mrs Mason was the last 7/7 survivor to be identified, and doctors told her that if she had been a foot closer to Tanweer she would have been killed. Her injuries made her unrecognisable to her husband and two daughters and dental X-rays were used to identify her.

Battery powered sensors now allow Mrs Mason to grip objects with her artificial left arm by flexing muscles in her upper arm. She added: "It's taken a bit of getting used to but now I can control my arm much better as well - I can hold both a knife and fork to eat and even do delicate tasks such as holding a squidgy cake or opening a packet of butter without squashing it."

Mrs Mason had the operation a year ago as part of a clinical trial. This week she will receive a new electrically powered elbow joint.

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