Mark Harding served in the British Army with the 1st Battalion Duke of Lancasters Regiment for 16 years, taking part in operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Skopje, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan. Whilst on his tour of duty in Afghanistan, it was not long before Marks Reconnaissance Sniper Platoon was deployed, when a call went out the afternoon of the 28th May to secure an Improvised Explosive Device only 300meters away from the platoon base. Marks team successfully secured the IED, but things soon went wrong as his team were contacted by insurgents, and, in a spilt second, three of the four man team were wounded. The fatal words rang out; MAN DOWN, MAN DOWN. Mark heard a loud metal bang and, when he came to, was 1 metre away from the wall with ringing in his ears, and his left thigh was displaced, sitting over his right but with them both parallel. He looked down and saw a hole on the left hand side of his body with the area rapidly becoming covered in blood. The single 7.62 round had passed through the right hand side shoulder and exited on the left side, shattering his C5/6 vertebrae and tearing out some of his spinal cord. He was casvac to Camp Bastian, and with the extent of his injuries he was immediately flown back to the Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham and placed into a coma on HDU to deal with the pain. Mark woke up 6 days later to find he couldnt move, and was in extreme pain as a result of nerve damage, to the point where he couldnt bear anything touching his skin. 4 weeks later once Mark had stabilised, he was airlifted to the Golden Jubilee Spinal Unit, James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, where he was a patient for 7 months. At this point Mark was still paralysed from the neck down and was told by two spinal doctors he may never walk again. Understandably, Mark went through some very dark times, but as time passed, he used these as building blocks to begin to rebuild his life. He was very determined to prove the doctors wrong - in fact both doctors said they are one of the few specialists who loved to be proven wrong, and Mark was determined to never lose his soldiers fighting spirit. He left Middlesbrough to start his rehabilitation at the Defence Military Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court in Surrey, where he underwent a lot of hard work in physiotherapy and circuits, continually pushing himself. After two and a half years, using the wheelchair, Zimmer frames, crutches and walking sticks as to drag himself forward through that pain barrier, Mark had proved the doctors wrong, and was walking again. Mark on his fundraising: I had a long term goal to walk up Skiddaw mountain in the lakes, I used to run up there before I was shot, when I returned it took me 6hrs up and down, by doing this not only did I reach my goal I also raised £5,600 for The Soldiers Charity, since then I have also absailed off The Big One in Blackpool raising £1,600, and raised an additional £6000 at a Dinner night in York for Barclays Bank. Now I keep pushing myself; even though Ive been very seriously injured I want to push myself and show other injured soldiers and their families that no matter your injury, you can still have a normal life and enjoy it to the full, which I still do. In 4 years Ive made it into the National Teams for the 200m sprint kayak and the GB Dragon Boat Team. Ive just got back from China at the IDBF World Cup, where we came 10th out of 16 tough teams and are ranked 10th in the world. At the London Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival we won the whole festival and got the fastest time 200m in 47.03 seconds, Im now getting ready for the European Championships in Prague later this month. Please help me help others, give as much as you can, so others can have the same help and support I had, and so that they can prove doctors wrong like I did. Thank you for reading, every £1 makes the difference. Mark
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 04:53:55 +0000
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