A black woman whose foot is due to be amputated was told that she would have to be fitted with a white prosthetic limb unless she paid an additional £3,000 for a black one, it was reported today.

Ingrid Nicholls told the Daily Mirror she was "devastated" to learn that only "pink" artificial limbs were available from the Royal Berkshire and Battle Hospitals NHS Trust. She was subsequently offered counselling.

"It comes to something when you have to be offered counselling because the services they are offering are so lacking - but only if you are black of course," Ms Nicholls told the paper.

Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority told the BBC it was "urgently looking into" why Ms Nicholls was told that she would have to pay more for a black limb. "Any prosthesis she was given would be funded by her local primary care trust and there is no local agreement only to fit white prosthetic limbs," the health authority told the BBC.

The local NHS Trust confirmed that the matter had "been resolved" and said the confusion had arisen because of the six separate trusts working in Berkshire. They would be co-operating to "address this issue and clarify funding for future cases," a spokeswoman told the corporation.