Hi my name is Vince Manley. I'm a former Royal Marine. I lost my legs to a roadside IED in Diwania Iraq in 2006. I was navigating in the lead vehicle of our 3 vehicle security convoy for a basic transit of a U.S. Army officer. As we were leaving the down ramp of the motorway system there was a deafening whack from the right side of my vehicle. I immediately got on my radio to confirm what exactly hit my vehicle. My vehicle was thick with a white dusty cloud and had an acrid calcium smell. As I looked  down I realised that my right leg had been blown off below the knee and my left calve and a lot of my bone tissue were missing, but my left foot was still attached by what was left of my shin muscles. I also thought I'd broke my right arm, but it turned out my elbow and end of my humorous had been smashed with a piece of shrapnel. I was given immediate first aide by our team medics (we had all passed the U.S. Combat medics course recently) tourniquets were applied, I had no pain until this point, ha !!  I was moved by road to the nearest camp and then Flown to hospital in Baghdad. My last memory was taking a bottle of Gatorade from the door gunner before passing out exhausted. I woke up 24 hrs later and after 12hrs of life saving surgery. Once I was stable I was informed my heart had stopped three times during surgery. 

I was flown to Germany where I opted for my left leg to be amputated below the knee as it was basically dying anyway. I soon developed infections in all my wounds and became quite ill. I was then moved to a Hospital in Jamestown US.  I unfortunately  had a Stroke from a botched Angiogram which resulted in losing my right knee because of no operations allowed for four weeks after the Stroke. The infection in my legs were winning at that stage so my surgeon suggested he takes the right knee to make sure the infection is gone from the right leg, I reluctantly agreed. After 13 weeks of recovery I eventually got back to the UK. That was 9 years ago, it has been a long road to get to this point. However, I now like to challenge myself with physical activities to see what is possible as an Amputee.

Pilgrim Bandits Charity  have given me the opportunity to prove to myself that life still goes on, no matter what injuries you have, as long as you are prepared to put in maximum effort. 

Thanks for reading through my story, please help me to achieve my target and help support Pilgrim Bandits Charity with all the great work they do for injured and disabled people.

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