WHEN Proserpine local Chris Yule was admitted to Mackay Mater Hospital in June, he didn't expect to wake up from a coma without one of his legs.

"It was a bit of a shock but I suppose I had to come to terms with it,” he said.

"It was only when I woke up that I found out (my leg was gone).”

A diabetic, Mr Yule, 60, had developed an ulcer on his left foot and after months of trying to heal it, the infection spread to his bone and he was taken to Proserpine Hospital.

Matters grew worse when Mr Yule suffered renal failure and he was transported to Mackay where he underwent emergency surgery to remove the affected leg.

"They had to remove the leg otherwise I wouldn't be here,” he said.

"When you think about it, that sort of makes it all real in the sense of what happened and where you're at.”

A pastor at St Paul's Anglican Church, Mr Yule said he had to adapt to life in a wheelchair until he had mastered the use of his prosthetic leg.

After leaving hospital in August, Mr Yule has returned to work in the Whitsunday region and said he was "positive about things”.

"Over the past few months I've become a gym junkie to enable me to deal with a wheelchair and the leg I've got,” he said.

"I go to the rehabilitation centre in Mackay once a week. It'll be a while before I'm up on two legs but in the meantime I'm working with the wheelchair.”

Mr Yule said he wanted the community to know he was out and about and was performing services.