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BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING survivor Patrick Downes has finished the race on the prosthetic blade he has needed since losing his left leg in the 2013 attacks.
Downes completed the course in five hours, 56 minutes, 46 seconds. He reached the finish line minutes before 2.49pm, when the explosions on Boylston Street three years ago killed three people and wounded hundreds more.
There to greet Downes at the finish line was his wife, Jessica Kensky. She, too, lost her left leg in the 2013 bombings, and had to have her right leg amputated afterwards.
“I feel like I’m celebrating the body that I have left, and it feels spiritual,” Downes told the Boston Globe in the run-up to the marathon. He and Kensky live at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre.
Adrianne Haslet, a professional ballroom dancer, also lost a leg in the attacks and was returning to the course as a runner. She completed the first half of the race in 4:47:17.
- Additional reporting Aoife Barry
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