Suicide bid vet in plea
A FORMER soldier plagued by PTSD who survived a suicide bid has urged the Army to give more support to veterans like him.
Ex-infantryman Perry Tatler, 29, is learning to walk again for the SECOND time after shattering his spine and suffering a brain injury when he jumped in front of a train.
Seven years ago he endured months of rehab after being shot through both legs in Afghanistan.
But it was mental scars he really struggled with.
He said: “As the bullet hit me I saw someone in a black burqa with a gun. That is the flashback I’ve had ever since.
“I’d wake up and the sheets would be drenched in sweat. I’d be so scared I’d go into my mum’s room like I was a child again.”
Perry, a private in the 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, said he was offered counselling by the Army but it did not work. In 2013 he was medically discharged and struggled with civilian life. He said: “You can’t just let men and women leave after a tour of duty like that and expect them to be ok. “By the beginning of this year I was in such a dark place I just didn’t think life was worth living.” Perry, from Newhaven, East Sussex, was living in Devon when he tried to kill himself at Torquay station. Now he is getting the help he needs through the Veterans’ Mental Health Transition Intervention and Liaison Service. Perry, who has two young children with his ex-partner, said: “I feel so much more positive now and am looking forward to a future with my kids. “I don’t regret what I did because it meant I got help but it shouldn’t have come to that. If you put your life on the line for your country, you deserve support.” Perry praised the “fantastic care” he got at Plymouth’s Derriford Hospital, Brighton’s Royal Sussex County and the Newhaven Rehabilitation Centre.