When the IRA bomb exploded, Darren Swift, an army dog handler in Belfast, had several split-second decisions to make. One of his legs had been blown off; the other, along with two fingers, was hanging by a thread.
His first instinct was to shoot himself, he now readily admits, but unusually, as he was feeding his dog at the time, he was without a weapon. The second was to rip off his remaining leg to enable him to drag his body more quickly to safety.
It is gory, vivid and explicit material to present to a class of 11- and 12-year-olds on a crisp morning in the home counties. But Swift’s story is part of a new project, Making Generation R, where limbless veterans help build resilience in young people.
[For more on this story by Fiona Millar, go to https://www.theguardian.com/ed...ask-limbless-veteran]
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