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� See pages 6-7 for our exclusive interview with Sgt Slater.

As he lay in hospital after being struck by a roadside bomb while serving in Afghanistan, Sgt Duncan Slater feared he may never be able to walk again or play a part in his new-born daugh-ter’s life.

Now, the double-leg amputee –

who recently completed a gruel-ling trek with Prince Harry to the South Pole – is to use his experi-ence to help children around the

world who are suffering because of limb loss.

The 34-year-old RAF veteran, of Scole, near Diss, pictured, has just become an ambassador for Elizabeth’s Legacy of Hope.

The charity – co-founded by Victoria Bacon, wife of South

Norfolk MP Richard Bacon – was started to help children in devel-oping countries who have lost limbs due to illness, malnutrition, accidents and violence.

POLAR TREK VETERAN’S NEW MISSIONDouble-leg amputee’s bid to help children around the world

Andrew Papworthandrew.papworth@archant.co.uk

6

NEWS localEastern Daily PressSATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2014

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From fighting for his life to trekking to South Pole... how soldier beat the odds to walk again

A newly-married sergeant Duncan Slater went out to Afghanistan in 2009 overjoyed with the news that he was about to become a father.

He was lifted out of Helmand prov-ince by his colleagues on stretcher, fighting for his life after being hit by a roadside bomb detonated by an insurgent – while his wife was five months pregnant.

As a platoon sergeant and experi-enced serviceman who had done tours of duty in Iraq and helped with the clear up of Hurricane Katrina in the US, it was his job in his joint Army, Navy and RAF role to help those wounded in action get the medi-cal attention they needed.

But while on patrol training the new Afghan security forces in Babaji as part of Operation Panther’s Claw, it was him who would rely on the help of his colleagues to save his life.

Amazingly, despite being propelled into the air and landing 30ft away in a compound, Sgt Slater was still conscious after the explosion, which went off right under-neath him.

“I looked at my left arm and it was completely broken,” he said.

“I looked down to see if I could move my legs and I couldn’t really feel my feet. I could feel bleeding

When Sgt Duncan Slater was hit by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Afghanistan, he thought he might never be able to walk again – or be a proper father to his daughter. ANDREW PAPWORTH spoke to him about that fateful day in 2009, his four-year recovery and what the future holds.

I looked down to see if I could move my legs and I couldn’t really feel my feet. I could feel bleeding coming from somewhere and I wasn’t sure if I had broken my back

Duncan Slater

coming from somewhere and I wasn’t sure if I had broken my back.”

The 34-year-old from Inverness knew from his training that help would potentially be a long time in

coming.With his left arm broken, he was trying

to get a dressing out and inject himself with morphine one-handed.

Luckily, his training had included how to do first aid one-handed in

anticipation of the very situation he

now found himself in.After about 20 minutes,

Sgt Slater was eventually found, put on a stretcher and airlifted to a top-grade medical unit at Camp Bastion.

Within 22 hours, he was flown to

� Duncan Slater, who was injured while serving with the armed forces. Right, Mr Slater during his trek to the South Pole with Prince Harry and fellow soldiers who were wounded in battle. Pictures: SONYA DUNCAN/WALKING WITH THE WOUNDED

7

local NEWSEastern Daily Press SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2014

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Duncan’s new mission: life after the armed forces

Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham so his wife Kim could be by his side.

“She was five months pregnant,” he said. “She tried her hardest not to panic. I don’t know how she did it. She was amazing.”

Sgt Slater spent between five and six days in intensive care.

He was then bed-bound for four months while undergoing operations to try to help with his injuries.

He said staff at the hospital were “amazing” and that the bond between him and other injured service personnel in the hospital greatly helped.

However it did not make coming to terms with what happened any easier.

Sgt Slater described the “long, boring days” in hospital where he would experience a rollercoaster of emotions changing hour-by-hour.

“It was quite hard,” he said. “A few days after I got into hospital two friends of mine were killed a couple of hundred metres down the road from where I got blown up.

“It was frustrating that I couldn’t go to their funerals because I wasn’t in the condition. It doesn’t do you much good.”

“There are days when it is quite depressing and you think: ‘Am I ever going to be able to get out of this bed?’ It wasn’t clear and it was look-ing likely I was never going to be able to walk again.

“However on a good day you were thinking: ‘It’s a couple of broken legs, I’ll be back out for the end of the tour.

“There was a real mix – some days of excruciating pain and others where it wasn’t so bad.”

After four months, two nurses helped Sgt Slater get into a wheel-chair. Having been bed-bound for such a long time, Sgt Slater said that gave him huge freedom to move about, go to the shops or visit friends.

Duncan Slater has gone from strength-to-strength since his operation, completing a trek to the South Pole with Prince Harry and also training for this year’s London Marathon.He said it had not been easy to learn to walk again and that he has to

keep up good levels of fitness to ensure his legs fit comfortably.His stumbling block now, he said, is figuring out what to do with the rest of his life now he is no longer in the armed forces.Mr Slater’s work with the charity Walking With the

Wounded has helped, as he has embarked on a series of talks including one at The Old School in Henley this week.After that, he will look at what courses and qualifications he can take with the charity’s help so he can get back to work.

Inspirational trek to South Pole with Prince Harry

Sgt Slater embarked on a year-long battle to walk at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Unit in Surrey.“They tried and tried and tried but it wasn’t going my way,” he said. “The damage was too great.”However there was one event he was determined to walk for – the birth of his daughter, Lilly.“It was a big deal for me just to walk her out of the hospital,” he said. “So I dosed myself up with as much medication as I could and managed to hobble out of the hospital.”However, he feared for the future he would have with his daughter.“I wanted to be active and do all things my dad did with me,” Sgt Slater said. “I felt I was not going to get that chance. It highlighted all the things I couldn’t do.“I felt I wouldn’t be a good dad because I was constantly in pain and dealing with the dramas of getting blown up.”After 12 months

in Headley Court, doctors told Sgt Slater they would have to amputate his legs to give him the best chance of walking.Sgt Slater said he did not hesitate in deciding to have both his legs amputated so he could have a chance of being able to play a full part in his daughter’s life.He was fitted with prosthetic legs six months after the operation to amputate.

Battle to walk for birth of daughter

� Duncan Slater, third from right, with fellow members of Walking With The Wounded team, from left, Ibrar Ali, Conrad Dickenson, Guy Disney, Richard Ire, Prince Harry and Kate Philp, after reaching the South Pole. Picture: PA

� Duncan Slater pictured walking again

Duncan Slater become the first double amputee to ski to the South Pole as part of an inspirational expedition by the charity Walking with the Wounded based at Stody, near Melton Constable.Accompanied by their

Royal patron, Prince Harry, the adventurers – including four injured British soldiers – successfully reached the bottom of the world after more than two weeks pulling sleds across Antarctica.Sgt Slater said the

trek was a “once in a lifetime” opportunity.That expedition is the subject of a two-part documentary on ITV called Harry’s South Pole Heroes. The second part of the show is on tomorrow at 8pm on ITV1.