Last year, as well as marrying supermarket worker Naiomi, he won two medals at Prince Harry ’s Invictus Games – a silver in sitting volleyball and a bronze in wheelchair basketball. It was exercise that helped him turn his life around and he threw himself into extreme physical challenges. He proved them wrong and returned to the UK, but then piled on seven stone and sank into depression, traumatised by the horrors that he had witnessed in Afghanistan. James lost his legs not long after meeting Naiomi in 2009 after he stepped on an IED in Helmand. It said: “You did it babe, I knew you would. When they finally put me down and stopped hugging me, I just sat and cried, unable to take this all in.”Īnd, of course, there was one final note in his stash, which proved Naiomi had never doubted her man would finish what he had started. He said: “We’d walked for 14 hours the previous day, had one hour’s sleep, and climbed for 12 hours that day. WW2 veteran, 97, makes parachute jump to mark Battle of Arnhem anniversary James said he broke down after he and his team completed the climb. She levelled me, kept me positive, and I owe her everything.” He added: “Naiomi was my rock throughout. “Pain is only temporary, but getting to the top would last forever.” I just flicked a switch in my head, got up and carried on. James said: “In those moments it’s incredible the reserves of strength you find in yourself. I will have that parmo waiting for you when you get home. The proud wife had written: “Bet you are smashing it babe. In it she had promised him a “parmo” – his favourite chicken snack – when he got back to their hometown Middlesbrough. Then James remembered the message he had read from Naiomi the night before. I’ve never known anyone more driven and focused in my life, and knew with him beside me I might just get to the top.”Īlso in their team was Darren’s wife, Mel, Darren’s close friend from the RAF Mark Burns, and media specialist Louis Baptiste who would video document the climb. “Instantly he replied, saying: ‘Let’s do it’, and within weeks he’d found a tour company in Tanzania who’d do this, and a team to join us. “It was Darren who originally responded to my Facebook comment in November when I suggested climbing Kilimanjaro,” James said. Like James, he suffered mental health issues for years before finding some relief in various sporting and charity fund-raising challenges, including the Invictus Games.

He’d come this far and if he went down now he might never mentally recover, they said.ĭarren had served 16 years in the RAF before being medically discharged in 2006 with injuries to his spine and shoulder. “And, with just a few hundred metres to go, I sat down and told everyone it was over.”Īt that moment team mates Darren Young, whom James had competed with at the Invictus Games, and Darren’s wife, Mel, sat with James and told him he could do this. Brave youngster Max Johnson to be celebrated as 'Heart Hero' at awards ceremony

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