A Fighting Spirit by Paul Burns

BLESMA Member Paul Burns Wins Prestigous Competition

Last year BBC One launched the MY STORY competition to find the most remarkable true-life stories in Britain.  Shortlisted from an initial entry of over 15,000 stories, Paul was chosen as the winner and his remarkable story has now been published and is available "online", just search for "A Fighting Spirit" by Paul Burns.

On 27 August 1979, Paul Burns’s life changed for ever. Travelling through Warren Point in Northern Ireland when the IRA detonated two massive bombs, he was involved in a devastating explosion – eighteen soldiers were killed that day; Paul was one of only two who survived. His story is a remarkable tale of one man’s determination to make the most of his life against the odds.

"I should not have survived that day, but having done so I feel I have to justify my existence.

I was 18 years old. On August Bank Holiday in 1979, in Northern Ireland. I was involved in the Warren Point bomb blast, the biggest single loss of life since the Second World War. 18 died. I lay where the blast had thrown me, burning, and body smashed. Then followed two years in hospital and rehab, but that is just the beginning of the story.

Sitting now in my wheel chair, having read yet another article in the newspaper of soldiers’ journeys from Helmand Province to Selly Oak Hospital then to Headley Court, I am reading my own story over and over again. As I crawl on my hands and knees to the bathroom because my stump is too sore to wear my prosthetic leg and my foot to painful to hop, I think - can 30 years really have gone by?

I am always in pain – it’s just a matter of how much.
I disguise this with my humour, to the extent people find it hard to take me seriously.

I really have lived these last 30 years. I have tried to fill every day. Tried to make people smile, tried to inspire all around me, and to show the IRA they could not break me.

This short 30 years have been full of positive wonderful people, and fantastic experiences. I have done many things that no one else has done. A real voyage of starting life again, learning to deal with limitations and constant pain."