Suffering squaddie lives in a tent
A BRITISH Army war hero is living homeless in a makeshift riverbank shack blaming crippling post traumatic stress disorder for destroying his life.
The squaddie, known only as ‘Jake’, left the forces after struggling to cope with seeing Army comrades blown up in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
The 27-year-old ex-tank driver, who served for six years, became homeless when his relationship broke down over the summer.
Last month, a study by King’s College London claimed one in three combat veterans from Iraq or Afghanistan suffers a mental health disorder. Now Jake says his PTSD has left him living in a makeshift camp by a river in Sidbury, Worcester, using his military skills to make a shelter.
This week he said: “We are just trying to survive – it’s freezing cold.
“We are stuck outside as there’s no emergency housing available
– all the places have been taken up.
“We were staying in ‘tent town’ on the riverside but we were moved. We were sleeping in doorways in town and we were moved on again.”
PTSD’s symptoms range from nightmares and hallucinations to anxiety and the inability to control emotions, often accompanied by alcoholism and substance abuse.
According to statistics, one in five US and UK veterans from the recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars suffers from PTSD.
Sue Freeth, chief executive at charity Combat Stress, told the Daily Express yesterday: “We were founded at the end of the First World War to support those who returned home with shell shock.
“A century on, there remains an urgent need for our specialist treatment and support. In the last decade, the number of veterans coming to Combat Stress has increased by 97 per cent.”