A black woman due to have her lower leg amputated was offered a white false foot and told she would have to pay extra if she wanted one that matched her skin. British-born Ingrid Nicholls, 46, said she was told at the state-funded hospital in Oxford, central England, that she would have to pay about 3,000 pounds for a brown-coloured prosthetic limb.

The cost of the white foot would have been covered by the National Health Service (NHS).

"If you've got to have an amputation, you should be allowed to have an artificial limb in the colour that is relevant to your skin," she told Reuters on Monday.

"It's not cosmetic. Who would want to look like a freak, having one white leg and one black one -- nobody."

A spokeswoman for the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority said there had been an internal misunderstanding over funding and that the NHS would pay for Nicholls to be fitted with the appropriate false limb.

"This has caused a real problem for this patient and we need to sort it out," the spokeswoman said. "We are sorry for the upset and hurt that has been caused."