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Amputee to Tackle Endurance Swim
How amputee soldier Scott Blaney is fighting back
May 30 2009 by Mike Malyon, Coventry Telegraph
AMPUTEE soldier Scott Blaney is taking on his next challenge of an endurance swim across the English Channel.
Cpl Blaney, from Nuneaton, has joined an army team for the annual inter-services open-water race to be held later this year.
The 22-year-old Grenadier Guardsman lost a leg and an elbow in a bomb blast in Afghanistan in May 2007. He was on foot patrol in Helmand province when a mine exploded, killing one of his colleagues and injuring four others.
Corporal Blaney, who has been nicknamed Hoppy by his black-humoured squaddie pals, has remained with his regiment. The Telegraph reported three months ago how he had made history as the first amputee to do sentry duty at the Tower of London.
He has set his sights on representing Great Britain as a cyclist at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London and has recently been abroad to get in some serious training for the Cross Channel event. The former Etone School student went to Camp Bay, in Gibraltar, with a squad from the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court.
“I had not done much swimming before,” said Cpl Blaney. “When I started, I was shaking with panic but by my second day, I did really well. I swam about 300 metres and I swam non-stop for half-an-hour in the afternoon.
“Since I lost my leg, I have taken up cycling and running. It is no good feeling sorry for yourself. I came to terms quite a long time ago with what happened.”
Cpl Blaney was joined in Gibraltar by another serviceman injured in Afghanistan. Mike Goody, of the Royal Air Force, had his right leg shattered last October. He said: “I used to swim 50 metres butterfly at national level but this is totally different –- it’s freezing cold in the sea, there’s a current and a swell and these distances are incredibly tiring. I’m swimming for an hour at a time and the metalwork that holds my leg together keeps freezing up.”
The squad have been training under the supervision of Lt Col Rob Healey, of the Royal Signals, who said: “Camp Bay has superb facilities. We have put the lads through open swimming at night, because during the Cross-Channel relay, any of them could find themselves on a night-time leg and it’s important they have had some previous experience of swimming in pitch dark conditions. It’s mentally challenging, completely different to swimming in bright sunshine.
(Thanks to Steve McNeice for sending this article)
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