ON JULY 7, 2005, the day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, Dan Biddle was sitting on the Tube at Edgware Road when a terrorist bomb exploded next to him, causing Biddle to lose both his legs, his left eye, his spleen and 87 pints of blood.

This week he will try to be fast-tracked as a shot-putter and power-lifter towards Britain’s team for the 2012 Paralympics, when 70 possible competitors are assessed at Mile End, East London, in an athletics stadium near where he was brought up.

For Biddle, 29, Wednesday’s event is another landmark in his astonishing mental and physical recovery from the outrage, when four suicide bombers killed 52 people and wounded 700. The incident caused Biddle, a former semi-professional footballer, to spend 51 weeks in two hospitals.

A determination to lead as normal a life as possible led him to marry his girlfriend, Lisa, in April 2007, to continue work, in which he advises on building projects, and now to aim for the 2012 Paralympics. His upper body strength is described as “phenomenal” by John Lear, a former national weightlifting coach. Seated in a wheel-chair, Biddle, who has a 56in, can press a 220lb barbell overhead 12 times.

Lear, who coached many Olympic teams, says: “He has terrific potential in the shot-putt because for disabled athletes there is no drive from the legs and hips or speed across the circle. It is, therefore, an event with the premium on powerful arms and shoulders.”

Biddle has always been both big and athletic. He was 6ft 4in and weighed 18st when he was playing semi-professional football in Essex. Now he trains regularly in a gym near his home.

Biddle says: “When I came out of hospital, I followed the advice that everyone gave me, ‘Focus on the things you can do, not on what you can’t’. And competing in the Paralympics is a possibility. I have always had a competitive edge in my sport and although I’m nervous about getting through, it would give me a real buzz to be chosen. Having targets like that means that when you are training you will do a little more.”

Coaches at UK Athletics will decide if he has the potential to be on the Fast Track Power programme, on which he would receive advice and coaching and, if he reached the necessary standard, ultimately lottery funding for 2012.