LEFT HERO WITH PTSD & UNABLE TO WORK

ing mental state meant he was unable to continue in his field and was awarded £36-a-week disability pension.

Today he and wife Lyla survive on £ 704 Unemployment and Support Allowance and £400 Housing Benefit.

The couple also rely on financial help from their two children Finley, 24, and Tatty, 19. After £600 rent, Gary and Lyla survive on about £ 600 a month. They spend £120 of that on food, £12 £125 on gas and electricity an and £100 on car tax and

fue fuel. Any money left goes towards paying off £2,000 in legal fees from their MoD battle and thousands owed to family and friends.

Lyla, 50, who has just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, said: “We survive by counting every penny.

“We have a very understanding landlord so if we are late with the rent, he doesn’t fuss and the butcher allows us credit, else it would be impossible.

“Gary gave everything for his country and received little in return. It’s not the way veterans should be treated.”

In his last week in the Army, Gary had to deal with 22 dead soldiers, some of whom perished in the notorious RAF Nimrod air disaster of 2006.

The aircraft had been on a routine r econnaissance mission over Afghanistan when a fire broke out on board after inflight refuelling. Every member of the 14-man crew was killed.

An inquiry into the disaster, the greatest single loss of life in the entire war, found the fire had been caused by a series of maintenance blunders.

Gary, who began Army life in the Grenadiers, added: “That was one of the worst weeks in the job. We were dealing with multiple deaths.

“You would go home at the end of the day and you could still smell death.”

He said the MoD knew the nature of the work was having an impact on his team’s mental health. His boss had already developed PTSD doing the same work as Gary but he claims no counselling was offered.

Gary, who met Prince Charles in the course of his work, added: “The MoD have been useless. I had no counselling when I was involved in the repatriation of the dead, even though the MoD knew it was traumatic. My boss left because he could not cope, so they knew the work was damaging us.

“There were periods when dead soldiers were arriving every day, sometimes several times a day.”

He added: “The years since I was diagnosed have been very difficult and I have contemplated taking my own life on several occasions.

“If I had physical injuries I’m sure I would have been treated better. The MoD says that it looks after veterans with PTSD but that’s simply not true.”

Three months after he left the Army Gary’s sister, Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliot, was killed by a bomb in southern Iraq. Again Gary was offered no advice or counselling.

But despite his challenges, Gary is determined to make his life a success. He has enrolled in a chemistry university course and hopes to return to forensics.

He said: “My PTSD means I will never be able to work at a crime scene but I hope one day I will be able to do lab work.”