SURVIVING meningitis and a life-saving operation to amputate his lower legs was a blessing in disguise for 2012 hopeful Steve Thomas.

The Paralympic sailing star, who is tipped to represent Great Britain in the Sonar keelboat class, was a promising rugby player until fate intervened when he was 18.

Steve, now 34, of Easton, Portland said: “It was a life-changing thing and it was all for the best.

“The way I look at it is I’m not disabled, I’ve just lost a couple of ankles.

“I can do everything – cycle, swim, horse ride, rock climb – I choose not to run because it’s hard on my knee joints.

“It’s all about having a positive mind-set.

“This has enabled me to travel the world and live the dream of being a professional athlete.

“I’ve got to be around some amazing people – the guys in Skandia Team GBR are at the top of their field and to have the opportunity to work in that environment and to experience it is pretty cool really.”

The former Welsh youth rugby international was studying sports development at University of Wales Institute Cardiff when he became dangerously ill with Meningococcal Septicaemia.

He said: “I not only had meningitis but blood poisoning with it, the doctors said they’d have to amputate or I would have died really.

“I’d been working that day and then went out and had a couple of beers.

“I was really unwell during the night and got taken to hospital the following morning – I woke up a month later in the Intensive Care Unit with all my organs shut down.

“They gradually brought me back out of sedation and reality hit home, they said ‘You’ve been this ill but you’re alive, we’ve got to amputate or your chances of survival are pretty slim’.”

Steve was fitted with state-of-the-art prosthetic legs, and after a stint as an ice sledge hockey player, found a new love out on the water and never looked back.

The two-time Sonar World Champions finished fourth at the latest ISAF World Cup event in Hyeres.

For now their sights are set on a podium finish at Sail for Gold Regatta 2011 but a medal in 2012 is the main goal.

Steve added: “There’s a lot of emotion in representing your country and wanting to do well. It’s one big spectacle, you can’t even put it into words until your actually part of it.”