How it happened
Peter was on a routine patrol when he got a call to say six
of his comrades were stuck in a vehicle that had broken down. He
couldn't get it moving so, under fire from insurgents, he attached
it to his vehicle to tow it back to base. With the insurgents still
firing, he scrambled in beside the driver.
Swirling dust made it impossible to see the way ahead, so Simon
leant out of the window to ensure they weren't about to drive into
a ditch.
Just as he said to the driver, "Clear! Put your foot down," a
sniper's bullet hit the left side of his face.
"I screamed really loudly - so my mates would know I was
alive."
Still conscious and in terrible pain, Simon had the presence of
mind to begin treating himself. With one hand he held a bandage to
his face to stem the bleeding, whilst putting the thumb of his
other hand into his mouth to hold up his palate. Simon remembers
trying to keep calm and telling himself to stay conscious.
It took 25 minutes to reach the field hospital. Not realising
just how seriously injured he was, Simon thought he would be
stitched up and back to work in a couple of weeks. The reality was
that he was so seriously injured he spent 19 days in a drug-induced
coma.
When he woke he was in Selly Oak hospital. When a friend came to
visit and Simon couldn't see him clearly, he realised just how bad
his injuries were. He was blind in his left eye and only had about
15% peripheral sight in his right eye.
"In the last three years, I've had 12 operations - that's 100
hours of surgery."
Quite naturally, Simon's instincts were to sulk and feel sorry
for himself; the future he thought he had disappeared. Gradually,
during his recovery and rehabilitation, he came to terms with his
injuries. He thought, well, I'm still here, alive. With much
courage, Simon underwent many operations.
His cheekbones and nose were reconstructed, his jaw remoulded
and a prosthetic eye fitted. "I worried what people might think of
me, because of my injuries."
When Ray, a friend of Simon's from the Legion's Leeds branch,
suggested that he helped him to distribute Poppies at the local
supermarket, Simon was apprehensive. Very conscious of his facial
injuries, he thought people would stare at him. But he found the
guts and although he felt a little intimidated at first, he found
himself talking to people, his self-confidence growing by the
minute. On such a high from this experience, Simon volunteered to
work with a charity for troubled teenagers.
Now the man who hid away from the world, has completed a degree,
tours schools giving talks about his experiences serving overseas
and is a motivational after dinner speaker. All this, from helping
with the Poppy Appeal.
"The Legion have helped me to find the courage to move on and
get on with my life."
A frequent visitor to his local branch, he's made friends with
veterans of all ages, from different conflicts. And he appreciates
that if it wasn't for the Legion, many ex-Service men and women and
their families over the years would never have received the help
and support they needed.
Just as he did.
Simon credits the Legion as having helped him turn around his
life and overcome his fear of meeting people face-to-face. He sees
the Legion as a safety net - knowing it was there for him gave him
the nerve to try new things and fail, if necessary. But, of course,
so far Simon hasn't.
Instead, he's discovered new strengths and talents that he never
realised he had. Simon has now proved he has the confidence to
stand in front of an audience.
"I feel this is who I am, I'm proud to be who I am,"
he says. "Life's good. I'm not alone in the world -
there are other people out there for me."
