OWEN PICK

I joined the 1st Battalion, The Royal Anglians straight from school. I was three months into my first tour of Afghanistan when I got blown up. That was in January 2010. I was just 18 years old. We’d been under fire all day and got the order to assault a compound. I stood on an IED (Improvised Explosive Device). I didn’t know anything about it, all I remember is a white flash, but I was apparently blown about 10 feet in the air. I woke up back in Selly Oak in Birmingham with my parents by my hospital bedside. I battled for 18 months to keep my leg, but in the end nothing was working. The surgeons gave me the choice: take it off or keep having numerous operations in the hope it might get better. In August 2011 I eventually decided to amputate my leg below the knee. I felt relieved once I’d made the decision, and since then I’ve not looked back.