Hero soldier forced to sell his medals to buy a home
A WAR hero said he is being forced to sell the bravery medal he won after being shot through the neck by a Taliban sniper in order to afford a house.
Simon Moloney is asking £100,000 for the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, the second highest bravery award, and his campaign medal won while serving as an Army lance corporal in Afghanistan.
The Household Cavalryman thought he was going to die after being shot as his troop tried to hold off militiamen.
He survived and fought on for 90 minutes and was rewarded for helping save his comrades when the Queen presented his medal at a Windsor Castle investiture four years ago.
Now, after leaving the forces last year, Mr Moloney said that the soaring cost of property in St Albans, Herts, left him no choice but to part with his medal.
The average price of a home in the old Roman city is £390,000 – £10,000 higher than in London.
Mr Moloney, who runs a cable supply business, said: “I am incredibly proud of my medals and what they represent. It has been a big decision to sell them but also a logical one.
“The money I hope to raise by selling my medals is life-changing for someone in my position and is purely to give me and my future family a better life.
“I will use it to get on the property ladder.”
Plunged
Mr Moloney was wounded when aged 23 and on his second tour of Afghanistan in July 2013, when he was with a 12-man troop rooting out insurgents in Helmand Province.
He was providing cover for comrades from an isolated rooftop when the bullet hit his neck.
The Blues and Royals trooper was knocked off the hut and plunged 8ft to the ground.
Army medic Wesley Masters, risked his life to dash 400 yards under heavy fire to give first aid.
Lance Corporal Masters was later awarded the Military Cross for his bravery, and received it at the same investiture as his friend.
Pierce Noonan, managing director at Dix Noonan Webb auctioneers, who will sell the medal in May, said: “Simon Moloney is a quintessentially British hero who talks about his extraordinary brush with death with a calm, modest detachment that fills me with admiration.
“The story of how he fought on for an hour and a half after receiving treatment for a wound that came within millimetres of killing him is truly inspirational.”