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Scan left; clear, scan right; clear, Boom....... There he was sailing through the air, blown high and
far out of the vehicle. Luckily, he says he landed on his head, otherwise he might have really hurt something, the ground being top of the list. Needless to say Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson was now in deep trouble with an enormous array of injuries that required two and a half years in hospitals just to get him to the stage where the Specialists, Doctors, etc. pronounced in a condescending tone that he ‘might’ if he was lucky be able
to get himself to a level where he could be wheeled around at home in a specialized chair, maybe in one of those jazzy
By Kev James
electric jobs! If not, then at least he would almost certainly be able to sit upright in a special bed.
Now, firstly we are dealing with a Paratrooper here who came back 7 times (a record) to do the dreaded ‘P Company’ which is specially designed to sort out the faint from the hearted! He eventually got through his one problem test by two seconds, Pass!! Secondly his parents can teach ‘Tenacity’ at any level you can think of. Andy his dad had
a conversation with one of these............ (make up your own swear word for a doubting condescending doctor) and when informed Ben would not be able to do anything other
than dribble food down his T-shirt in front of the television, Andy quickly rattled off a dozen things Ben was going to achieve. After informing the quack that Ben would certainly skydive, ascend mountains, raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity, walk whenever and wherever he wanted to, then he really started to build up a head of steam and in a final fit of temper he announced: “and he’s going to Scuba Dive.”
At this point it makes a lot of sense to mention to the reader that Ben has no legs below mid-thigh and a very serious brain injury, he is the most seriously injured British Soldier to actually survive. He also has difficulty remembering important
DREAMS DO COME TRUE
– FROM ZERO TO SCUBA HERO