REGIMENT
Shane’s six comrades who lost their lives while suffering from PTSD all served with him on the front line in the Royal Regiment of Wales, which later became the Royal Welsh and has the Queen as Colonel-in-Chief.
The toll includes Platoon Sgt Spencer Beynon, who died aged 43 last June, Sgt Major Glenn Ormiston, who died aged 41 in 2011, and Damien Brown, who died aged 33 in 2008.
We are not naming the other three men at the request of their families.
Shane joined the Army aged 17 in 1993 and served twice each in Iraq and Northern Ireland, plus duty in Bosnia, Kosovo and Germany. He also guarded London’s Royal palaces. He met Princess Diana and Prince Charles in an unblemished career and went on to work as a driver for high- ranking officers and VIPs on the front line. But he left the Army in 2007 and was formally diagnosed with PTSD three years later. Shane, from Caerphilly and now living in his wife Heather Heather’s s native Northern Ireland, said: “I first realised I was suffering from PTSD in 2007 on our second tour of Iraq. Until then I had always had an active Army career and loved my job.
“That tour was hell and is widely considered one of the hardest the British Army has ever had to fight.
“We came under attack at all times of the day on the base and were attacked every single night.
“We were routinely being attacked up to three or four times a day by mortars. Some days we were attacked four of five times by 11am.
“It got to the point where I was scared to sleep.
“I was getting nightmares and flashbacks. But I refused to tell anyone or go to the doctor. It was bravado that stopped me.
“I came home and we had a party but halfway through I went upstairs, sat on the bed and just started crying.
“My wife came up to look for me and I said, ‘I can’t go back. I’m scared.’ I