Everest hero tells of Taliban bombing trauma
Army veteran reveals struggles with PTSD
SACRIFICING his dream to conquer Everest just 550 yards from the summit, Les Binns was hailed a national hero after saving a stranger’s life as she plummeted to near-certain death.
His actions that day were not those of a hero, the Army veteran maintains, simply those of a man unwilling to stand aside and do nothing as someone else suffered.
He is only human after all, the father from Wath-upon-Dearne adds, as he opens up about his own past battles with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“I’ve been in some pretty deep, dark places,” he says. “Thankfully I’m on the right track now, but you’ve got to be in a really low place, to realise what your true potential is.”
Mr Binns, blinded in his left eye after being hit by shrapnel from a bomb while serving in Afghanistan, knows only too well the living torture that trauma can bring.
And as the now 45-year-old finds an inner strength and solace in his mountaineering, he hopes his battle may bring comfort to others in knowing there is hope for recovery.
“I would never take my own life, I’ve got too many reasons not to,” he says, referring to the five-year-old daughter who is his greatest joy.
“But for a time, my whole life just seemed to be a hill in front of me, one day after the other. I was living day by day, there was no hope for the future.
“The first battle is in speaking out, to tell people you are suffering.”
Walking along the reservoir by Barnsley’s Worsbrough Mill, he reflects on the changing course of his life after Afghanistan. His battle
I put my hand up, and I couldn’t feel my face.
Les Binns speaking about a shrapnel bomb blast that killed three Afghan soldiers.
with PTSD was to set him on this new path.
As an Army Corporal, he had seen many tours, in Iraq, Kosovo and Northern Ireland. Many near misses that stayed with him, such as the buried mine that did not explode.
Then a shrapnel bomb hit in 2009 in Afghanistan, killing three Afghan soldiers as he hurried to disperse them.
“The blast hit me in the face, knocking me onto my back,” Mr Binns recalls. “I was deaf for a few seconds, seeing everyone running and screaming, and knowing something was wrong.
“I started to get up and come to my senses, that’s when I realised I was covered in blood. I put my hand up, and I couldn’t feel my face. I thought the worst.”
He was to be rushed by helicopter to Camp Bastion but would never regain the sight in his left eye.
Discharged from the Army, he retrained as an electrician.
“Back on civvy street, I tried to live a normal life, but it wasn’t to be,” he says.
Turning to his GP for help, Mr Binns was dismayed when the doctor starting researching his symptoms on the internet, before offering him only medication.
This was in a time before PTSD among veterans was fully recognised, he adds, while today there are a wealth of charities with a greater understanding.
For every person, he says, there is a different path to recovery. He found his unlikely therapy outdoors, and is now setting up Ridge Raiders Adventures as a mountain guide.
But having seen suffering, he knows what it can do. The first step to recovery, he says, is in admitting that you are struggling.
“You can’t be too proud to speak to somebody, too proud to ask for help,” Mr Binns adds. “It’s the best thing I ever did, but I fought it for a long time.
“You don’t have to suffer in silence. There’s always someone listening.”