‘I told the doctors I wanted them to amputate my leg’
WATCHING his children play in the sunshine back home in Wales, Afghanistan veteran Darren Carew was at his lowest ebb.
Injured and out of the Army after the armoured vehicle he was in was blown apart by an IED during a routine patrol in Helmand province, the former corporal suffered years of pain in his shattered left leg and struggled with a minor brain injury and PTSD.
Painkillers were numbing him and he could no longer play with his children or take part in sport. After four gruelling years of surgery and rehabilitation, Darren’s left leg still didn’t work and was so painful he was still on morphine.
“I remember looking out of the window at my kids outside and thinking, ‘I am not a husband, father or soldier’.
“It was my lowest point,” Darren, 34, said. “I told doctors I wanted them to amputate my leg. Eventually they agreed.”
In 2012, four years after the injury, Darren’s left leg was amputated below the knee.
“I haven’t looked back,” said the father-of-three, who now lives in Ynyswen with wife Beverley and their children Arwen, 15, Iestyn, nine, and Ieuan, one.
“I never had a problem with prosthetics because I was determined to be up and walking and then running. I have a hybrid blade for running and walking, which is brilliant. I have my life now and I’m no longer on morphine for pain.”
But getting back into rugby, the sport he loved, was not enough for the former St Teilo’s schoolboy who grew up in Cardiff dreaming of being a soldier.
After taking part in the Disability Six Nations in Caerphilly, he approached the WRU, asking if he could do more to help young disabled people play the national game.
For the past two years Darren, now a WRU rugby coach, has led a pilot programme with the WRU working with 500 children in 30 schools across Wales and nearly 2,900 young children and young adults outside schools to get them into rugby and rugby-related activity.
It has been so successful the WRU has now appointed Darren to lead its new Disability Inclusion Plan.
The plan will see longterm rugby events and teams set up across Wales for people with a range of disabilities.
“I want a regional disability rugby club structure in place in every region in Wales so all these kids have something sustainable for the long term,” said Darren. “If kids can’t play rugby, we do rugbyrelated activities.”
Recalling the blast which changed his life forever, Darren said coaching has helped him cope with PTSD.
“We were in an armoured truck as part of a patrol and taking the vehicle back. We were in open desert going along with people with metal detectors in front of us. Then there was a massive explosion. A big boom. The blast hit the centre of the vehicle and the floor blew up. A washer went through my boot and shattered my heel. We all had crush injuries to our legs and I had a bump on the head.”
Rescued by helicopter, the injured were taken back to Camp Bastion and flown back to Britain. But the noise stayed in Darren’s head.
“PTSD is the worst. My biggest trigger is screaming because I was in a confined space in a vehicle with people screaming. You think all the noise and screaming, coaching kids, would affect that, but actually it helps,” said Darren, who joined the Army in 1998 and served with the Royal Regiment of Wales before transferring to the 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards.
“People under my command are injured. I couldn’t cope with that, although I was not to blame. I have struggled with that for a long time. Being involved in sport helps.
The WRU said in a statement: “In order to ensure the national game is inclusive and engaging to all ages, genders, abilities and communities, the Union is launching a wideranging Disability Inclusion Plan.
“The WRU has appointed inspirational coach Darren Carew to lead the implementation of the plan and ensure there are opportunities for people of all ages and abilities.”