Our Heroes

On 25 July 2009, Rifleman Dean Williams of 2 RIFLES, then 19 years old, sustained severe multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen whilst on patrol in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Transfused with 75 litres of blood and 75 units of platelets, enough to totally replace his blood at least 10 times, his condition was stabilised at Camp Bastion before he was flown to Germany by USAF C-17, accompanied by a highly skilled US Army medical team using Nova Lung Technology.

Michael Keighley was blown up in Afghanistan on 21 Jul 11, aged 23, when he fell and triggered an improvised explosive device while searching for bombs. He was serving with The Rifles when he found two bombs buried underground. After discovering a third device, he turned to warn his fellow soldiers and tripped over some rubble, setting a bomb off.

On 18 Aug 2009, LCpl Martin Tye RLC was seriously injured when a suicide bomber drove in to his vehicle in Kabul. He suffered multiple injuries to his lungs, legs, shoulder, bi-lateral knee injuries, various muscle tears, shrapnel all over his body and now has arthritis. He was given 10% chance of living. However, he has made remarkable progress with his recovery. 

In May 2010 Tirthraj was serving with 1RGR in the Nahr-e-Saraj (South) region of Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan. An Improvised Explosive Device (IED) detonated near to Tirthraj whilst he was deployed on a foot patrol injuring him badly.

Lionel O’Connor, soldier and amateur boxer, remembers lying in the back of his patrol vehicle after being blown up by a roadside bomb in Iraq. He had lost his leg in the blast, was bleeding heavily and there were the bodies of two dead soldiers lying over him. When the rescue party arrived his humour shone through, he joked to them “Have you ever seen a one legged boxer?”

Lance Corporal Scott Yarrington lost both legs as a result of an improvised explosive device during a routine patrol in Southern Afghanistan whilst in deployment with the Irish Guards.

Marine Peter Dunning, 24, was in a Viking vehicle when it hit a buried homemade bomb in Afghanistan in May 2008. The blast was so fearsome it sent the vehicle's six-tonne cab flying 20 feet.

Talan Skeels-Piggins is a former Naval Lieutenant flight controller. Following a motorcycle accident in March 2003 which shattered his spine and broke his neck, he is now paralysed from the chest down .