THE Royal British Legion’s poppy appeal launches today, with the aim of raising £50million for forces veterans and their families.
If you ever wondered why your donation is so desperately needed, here two best friends who suffered devastating injuries in explosions just minutes apart while serving in Afghanistan reveal how the Legion helped save their lives.
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“The Taliban were hunting gingers that day,” jokes David Plant, “and they got two in just three minutes.”
Redhead soldiers Anthony Cooper and his comrade David, from The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, were on a routine patrol in Helmand Province on the morning that their lives changed forever.
First Anthony — nicknamed Coops — stood on an improvised explosive device which blew off both his legs, his finger, took out an eye and left him with “one of the worst brain injuries in military history”.
Just three minutes later, David — known to mates as Jack — stood on a second Taliban IED and he, too, lost both his legs.
The Privates — referred to as Kingsmen in their regiment — spent years in hospital together, but lost contact a decade ago as they struggled with their horrific injuries.
Tragically, both attempted suicide but were saved by the British Legion.
Jack, now 34, moved to Spain but struggled to escape his demons.
He was rescued by an RBL overseas team set up to look after the thousands of veterans living abroad.
‘Taliban opened fire’
To mark this year’s Poppy Appeal, the Legion brought the pair together for the first time in a decade for an emotional reunion.
As they met in a park near Coops’ home in Chorley, Lancs, the years disappeared and they exchanged some enjoyable Army banter.
In a heart-wrenching exclusive interview, both former soldiers told the harrowing story of how they survived against the odds when the bombs they stepped on detonated And they revealed how they both owe their lives to the British Legion.
Sitting on a bench waiting for his old comrade, Jack’s prosthetic legs reach to the ground.
Anthony arrives in a wheelchair, and hops on the bench on his stumps to give his old pal a massive hug.
Jack reveals that, before the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment went to Helmand Province in early 2010, his sister had a tarot card reading which had predicted bad news.
But nothing could have prepared him for the devastating blast which would rob him of his lower limbs.
The friends’ six month tour was in fact almost finished when, on the morning of July 6, 2010, Coops was at the head of a patrol checking for IEDs with a metal detector.
Just before 11am, he stepped on a 45kg bomb that was big enough to take out a truck — and a split-second later, a Taliban fighter detonated it.
Coops, now 38, says: “I lost both legs above the knee, two fingers on my left hand, the fingertips on my right hand, the pupil in my right eye blew up and I suffered what the medic described as the worst blast brain injury in modern military history. I can’t remember anything after the explosion.”
But Jack recalls every detail of the horror which maimed his comrade, though he has not spoken about it publicly until now.
He says: “I remember Coops getting hit. It took 0.2 of a second to realise what was going on.
“There was a massive cloud of smoke. It was obvious an IED had gone off. Everyone started shouting.”
As his comrades battled to save Coops’ life, the Taliban opened fire with AK47 rifles.
Moments later, two US Black Hawk helicopters landed — one to winch up Kingsman Cooper on a stretcher while the other attacked the enemy, who were firing rockets.
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Jack tells Coops: “They were hovering 40ft above the ground. It was just too dangerous for them to land.
“Our section commander ordered everybody out of the way of the helicopters’ down draft because it would set off more IEDs.
“We were running, I was following the man in front. My foot went into the footprint he’d left in the sand.
‘I thought I was dead’
“That’s when I hit the second IED, which the entire section had already walked over more than twice.”
Three minutes after his mate was blown up, a second explosion threw Jack 15ft into the air, severing both his legs.
Pointing to where his right limb once was, Jack says: “I hit the ground and that side was like a fountain. I figure I’m bleeding out.
“I was conscious and was trying to get into my med pouch. That’s when I noticed the thumb had gone. I managed to get a tourniquet on and tightened it the best I could to stop the red-hot bleeding. That’s where the pain really kicked in. The lads were slowly edging towards me with another metal detector, but there was shrapnel everywhere, so I just started crawling towards them. They said, ‘Stop! You’re going to set off more IEDs’, at which point I really didn’t care.
“I thought I wouldn’t mind if it happened right now. I got to the lads and they put me on to a stretcher made from a tarpaulin. A few of the lads were still having a firefight.”
Dragged on his makeshift stretcher through a river to a landing site, Jack waited for the second US helicopter to turn around and return for him as enemy rockets exploded.
They got me on to a helicopter and pumped me full of ketamine.
I remember thinking, ‘am I alive, am I dead?’Jack Plant
He says: “I remember floating upwards thinking, ‘This is it’. “I was shocked, I was scared, I thought I was dead. I remember praying and thinking that I hoped I’d followed the right religion. Why had I been so bothered about such petty things? None of it mattered.
“They got me up on to a helicopter and pumped me full of ketamine.
“I remember waking up at various points along the way thinking, ‘Am I alive, am I dead?’.”
Jack came around briefly in hospital at Afghanistan’s Camp Bastion military base, but remembers nothing more until he woke in an intensive care unit in Birmingham, where he was reunited with Coops, who had been in a coma for weeks.
The pair ended up at Headley Court military rehabilitation centre in Surrey, where Coops stayed for four years — their longest patient ever.
But, sadly, the pals went their separate ways and lost touch.
The Legion pick up on stuff. I don’t know how they do it. But they get involved. It’s heart-warming
Anthony Cooper
Coops tried to take his own life numerous times until the Royal British Legion came to his aid.
He says: “The Legion is different to other charities that just leave you.
“The Legion — they pick up on stuff. I don’t know how they do it. But they get involved. It’s heart- warming. You know someone’s always there if you need help.”
The British Legion also helped Jack after he moved from his home in Nelson, Lancs, to Spain, where the charity has an overseas support team.
Haunted by the past and frustrated by his injuries, Jack says: “I thought I’d escape and go to a place where I could be on my own. But I ended up in a very dark place. Instead of ending it, I remembered I’d been given a card for the Royal British Legion and rang their number.
“Within an hour, the guys were there. They scooped me up and took me to stay with them in Murcia.
“They saved my life. Without them, I would not be here.”
The RBL overseas team also helped fund a £10,000 handcycle to aid Jack physically and mentally.
He recently returned to the UK, where the RBL again assisted him in finding a house in Talkin, Cumbria.
He says: “To everyone who buys a poppy, I want to say, ‘Thank you for saving my life’. I would not be here without you and the RBL.”
Coops adds: “Thanks to the Legion, we’re together again — and this time we won’t lose touch. The Taliban may have injured us, but they haven’t got us. We’re still here, aren’t we?”
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Scan QR code to donate
THE SUN has joined forces with the Royal British Legion so our readers can donate direct to this year’s Poppy Appeal by scanning the QR code, below left.
Money raised during the annual appeal, which launches today and brought in £51.3million last year, will help the RBL to continue its vital work supporting the Armed Forces community, past and present, with whatever they need, whenever they need it.
This year’s Poppy Appeal is highlighting the mental scars linked to military service.
An army of 50,000 volunteer poppy sellers will be collecting in towns and cities across the UK.
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Saddest farewells to two heroes of epic battles
A BLIND D-Day hero who was due to march at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday has died.
George Chandler, 99, was set to lead the contingent from the charity Blind Veterans UK in the march-past of 10,000 former servicemen and women.
He never forgot the horrors he witnessed as a 19-year-old gunner on a torpedo boat protecting American troops as they landed at Normandy on June 6, 1944.
Retired BT engineer George, of Burgess Hill, West Sussex, previously recalled: “You had to be there. It was like all hell had been let loose. Unfortunately, due to a navigation error, the Americans were landed a mile and a half too far to the West and were slaughtered as they came in. It was something I wouldn’t want anybody to watch.”
And Korean war veteran Tom Clough, who has also marched at the Cenotaph with the blind charity, has died aged 93.
Tom, of Staverton, Gloucs, was one of the last survivors of the 1951 Battle of Imjin River in Korea.
He saw active service there as a gunner attached to the Gloucestershire Regiment, known as the Glorious Glosters.
Captured after the battle, he was punished for trying to escape from a Chinese prisoner of war camp, and was kept in “a wooden cage about 4ft high that was not big enough to lie down in”.
