OF WOUNDED EX-MARINE ‘I reached the point where I took some rope & put my head through the noose’
A FORMER Royal Marine wounded in Afghanistan says veterans are committing suicide because they are too proud to ask for help.
Lee Waters, who spent 21 years in the commandos, called on the Ministry of Defence to improve treatment of mentally traumatised troops and veterans.
In the past six weeks four former Royal Marines – all combat veterans – have taken their own lives.
Lee (pictured below, third from the left) is a former staff sergeant who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But after being badly wounded, he developed depression and combat-related PTSD.
His illness led to a suicide attempt while serving at the Commando Training Centre in Lympstone, Devon.
Lee decided to speak out after attending the funeral of a former Royal Marine who took his own life last month after struggling with PTSD and depression.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Star Sunday, he said: “There are a lot of veterans out there who need help but are too proud to ask, and they are paying for that mistake with their lives.
“The MoD needs to change the way it treats serving personnel because something is going badly wrong.
“I don’t want to attend any more funerals of guys who had PTSD but felt they couldn’t ask for help.”
Lee’s problems began during his second tour of Afghanistan in 2010 when he was shot in the face, hand and foot while on patrol with 40 Commando in Sangin.
He said: “Later in that tour two of my friends were killed and another lost both legs and an arm.
“I developed survivors’ guilt because I felt I should have been with them when they were injured.”
Lee recovered physically but began to struggle mentally. He started drinking heavily and suffered nightmares.
He continued: “From the outside everything appeared fine. I had a busy job which I was doing well, but inside I was dying. I felt that I had become a burden to everyone.
“Before I was injured I was this tough, ‘not scared of anything’ Royal Marine and then became a weak, frail person who would lay under my bed covers too scared to get up. I would wait for it to get dark, go into town and get drunk, come back and get back into bed.
“I had reached a point where I decided to end it all. I found an empty room, got a piece of rope, put my head through the noose and right at that moment a friend of mine walked into my room.
“It was the same person who I had saved from committing suicide a year earlier. He frogmarched me to sick bay where I spent three hours crying into a Surgeon Lt Commander’s lap.”
Lee received treatment for two years. He said: “I was saved and got treatment, was diagnosed with PTSD and depression and gradually got my life back.”
Lee was medically discharged in 2015 and now works as a sea kayaking guide.
He added: “I still have bad days and when I do I go out kayaking and give myself a bit of time and space. When I’m on the water I feel completely at peace. I’ve met a wonderful woman, I have an eight month-old daughter…life is good.”
If you have been affected by this article, you can contact the following organisations for support: mind.org.uk; mentalhealth. org.uk; samaritans.org.