A successful businessman who grew up near Norwich is to appear on Channel 4's Secret Millionaire television programme tonight.

Losing a leg at the age of 15 in a motorbike accident on the A14 instantly changed Matthew Newbury's life beyond recognition.

Mr Newbury, who grew up in Attleborough attending Old Buckenham High School, and spent several years in his teens as a volunteer in the lighting department at the Norwich Playhouse, was awarded more than �2m compensation at the age of 23, making him a millionaire overnight.

Now 30 years old, he is a property developer with staff based in Norwich and a growing fortune of �9m. He left his Covent Garden home to go undercover in Manchester focusing on charities working with disability. Despite having an expensive bionic leg, to keep his cover Mr Newbury swapped this for a standard NHS one – a move that caused him pain throughout the week.

While in Manchester, he meets a triple amputee war veteran, works with a theatre group and makes friends with Alex, a young man facing the difficult decision of whether to amputate a leg to stop the constant pain he is in following life-threatening meningitis.

Mr Newbury said the experience had changed his life for the better, and has prompted him to set up a social enterprise to help people with disabilities make conversions and alterations to their homes. He said: 'My life is very much a bubble. Stepping out and being able to learn more about someone else's life has given me a real sense of perspective. It wasn't easy being without my bionic leg for a week – it was painful, but a lot of people do that every day.'

The programme is on Channel 4 tonight at 9pm.