REAL RIDER Mark Allen, 27, from Norfolk, suffered life-changing wounds in Afghanistan but has found a renewed passion for cycling...

Iwas 19, serving with 1st Royal Anglian regiment, in Afghanistan. I was leading a patrol when I stood on an improvised explosive device. I lost both legs instantly. I spent three months in intensive care and four years at Headley Court rehabilitation centre.

In 2017, I was lucky enough to get a place on Help for Heroes’ Big Battlefield Bike Ride. I got fit and lost about 22kg. We covered about 70 miles a day for six days. The weather was horrendous but it felt like such a great achievement.

I’m doing some Paralympic racing in the UK and Europe, and most recently took part in the world championships in Holland. Last November I was one of 22 veterans from the UK, Canada and New Zealand taking part in Pilgrim Bandits’ Operation Ride – cycling 2500km over 17 days from the southern tip of New Zealand to Cape Reinga, the top of the North Island. The Pilgrim Bandits charity provides extraordinary experiences and opportunities for ex-servicemen and women with similar injuries to mine. For this ride, the injured personnel were on the front of specially adapted tandems – with a hand crank at the front and foot pedals at the rear – supported by able-bodied/ injured teammates. We rode up the west coast of the South Island in horrible conditions: it rained every day and there were mountainous climbs. The further north we went the better it got – the reception from the locals warmed us up too. I’ve only been cycling for a year but it’s changed my life.

The weather was horrendous but it felt like such a great achievement