Burned Soldier To Run 52 Marathons
This is a very inspiring story of someone willing to do something extraordinary to help those that had helped him.
After suffering severe burns in a petrol bomb attack on his tank in Iraq, former soldier Karl Hinett set himself tough rehabilitation goals.
Five years ago, images of the ex-gunner and his colleagues on fire desperately climbing out of their Warrior tank were flashed on TV news bulletins around the world.
They came under attack in Basra in 2005 as an angry Iraqi mob chanted and taunted them.
The 23-year-old blacked out before he was taken to a field hospital.
He was put to sleep there and woke up “a week or two later” in Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham with 37% burns to his hands, legs, arms and face.
Over the past five years he has lost count of the number of operations and skin grafts he has had there.
But now, after making a strong recovery, the former serviceman from Tipton in the Black Country said he wanted to say thank you to the staff that had treated him.
He plans to raise money for the burns unit by running a marathon every weekend for a year.
“Hopefully I can raise a lot of money for the burns unit.”
“My surgery is coming to an end and to say thanks I was going to run a marathon every weekend for a year next year,” he said.
And, like his treatment and rehabilitation since the attack, he said: “It’ll be long, but it’ll be worth it.”
Read more at www.bbc.co.uk
