MALIC 1997

visiting. I had never even seen her, not on TV or in pictures. But, wow, she was brilliant. The way she greeted us, when she patted us on the shoulder.

“She did not behave like a princess, she wanted to pour the coffee, she was eating my mum’s cake.”

He heard of her death through gossip at school. “I fled home,” he recalls. “For a long time, I felt in some haze.

“I did not cry when I lost my leg, but I did when I watched her funeral.”

The 20-year anniversary of her death is a poignant reminder of his guardian angel when he needs it most.

The married dad, who has a five-yearold son, endures a prosthetic held together by duct tape, glue, and metal he has welded himself. He uses layers of socks on his stump where a silicone sleeve should be, leading to blisters and infections. The artificial foot is so cracked it is rigid. “It is a concrete leg,” he says.

Today, landmines affect huge numbers across the world – in 2015, 6,461 people were wounded or killed by them.

In April, Prince Harry pledged support for a bid to rid the world of landmines by 2025 – and Malic was invited to London to meet him. “He is a good copy of his mother,” he smiles.

Malic’s need for a new prosthetic has now been highlighted and he awaits help. Life is tough, but he says, with inextinguishable optimism: “There is someone who is taking care of me.”

To find out more about landmine clearance worldwide, visit www.maginternational.org