THE wife of a musician, who fell ill while on tour in Ecuador and had to have part of his leg amputated, has made a heartfelt plea for people to help bring her husband home.

Steve Grimmett, 57 who lives in West Swindon, was only seven days into a five week tour of South America when he started to feel unwell, resulting in all future gigs with his band Grim Reaper being put on hold indefinitely.

Now, his wife Millie is rushing to be at Steve’s bedside. Since the news of his illness broke last week, friends have rallied together to set up a fundraising page to help pay for medical bills after Steve's insurance company refused to pay.

Millie told the Advertiser: “He had an old wound on the bottom of his foot, which he has had for a while but we didn’t think anything of it, but somehow it got infected. The infection took a hold very aggressively and he fell unwell on the Friday when they had a gig.

“Where the band were is very high up so everyone thought it was something to do with the altitude at first. It was on the Saturday that he was determined to do the second gig and so he did it sat down. After that he went to the hospital and they took him into surgery thinking they managed to cut away the infected part.

“It was only when they did a scan that they realised they hadn’t got all of it but it had spread to his bones. He was told initially that he might have to have a few toes cut off and the worst case scenario would be to have his foot amputated.

"Only a few hours passed and then they did another scan and found it had spread to his knee.”

As a result of his injuries, doctors at the hospital in Guayaquil had to amputate part of Steve’s leg above the knee.

The fundraising page created for Steve has reached $10,000 which will help pay towards his medical bills as well as the life-changing aftercare and physiotherapy he will need.

Millie, 38, who has been married to Steve for five years, has been updating family, friends and fans of Steve’s band on Facebook about his condition but due to poor signal in Ecuador, she said regular contact has been hard to maintain.

Instead, she hopes being there for Steve in person will help him on his road to recovery.

“Because it is such a long way, door to door you are talking at least 19 hours, after having major surgery you can’t fly for at least 10 days,” she added.

“I am hoping next Friday is when we will be able to come home.

“Since it all happened, the embassy have been really good in helping me organise things and the promoters are looking after him until I get there. Sadly he is on his own because the band thought they were flying him home last week so they booked their flights.

“He is a full-time touring musician and so he will have to take time off work when he comes home and I work in the music industry as well and I am going to be his full-time carer for a while.”

Speaking as she travelled to the airport to board the plane to South America, Millie added that both her and Steve are humbled by the generosity of people to the fundraising page.

She said: “I am absolutely overwhelmed by it all. I have been trying to keep everyone updated on Facebook and right from the first post, I have been inundated with messages from people. The support is amazing and I think that is keeping Steve going as well.

"His morale is really high and he is determined to recover and get on with his life and not let this stop him doing what he loves. If anything, this experience will spur him even more on to achieve everything he wants.”

To donate visit www.youcaring.com/stephenmgrimmett-740370