WIFE OF PTSD SOLDIER’S HARROWING STORY I’m terrified Iraq hero husband will kill himself but no one will give us help

THE wife of a Ptsd-stricken soldier who has tried to kill himself twice has told of her despair at the lack of support.

Kate England says she’s been told the NHS’S new mental health scheme to save veterans can’t help husband James, 36, because his post-traumatic stress disorder is too severe.

She adds his local NHS mental health trust says it cannot help either because its psychiatrists don’t have the expertise to treat PTSD.

But she says the Ministry of Defence deems dad-of-four James’s PTSD has such little impact, he only deserves the lowest rate of war pension.

“I’m so frustrated, I don’t know where to go for help,” said Kate, 39.

“How can someone who has put his life on the line for his country be let down so badly? He has friends who have been blown up, he has seen things nobody should ever have to see.

“I’m constantly terrified he will do something stupid. Yet there is no support for him or our family.”

The Sunday People’s Save Our Soldiers campaign is calling for more support for Forces heroes, an inquiry by MPS and increased NHS funding.

James’s mental health deteriorated so badly last year he was sectioned after trashing his Oxfordshire home and smashing a golf club on his car while his young children were inside.

Kate said: “Just before it happened I was screaming on the phone for the local mental health team to come out.

“He tipped over the TV and a cabinet full of books. It was carnage.

“I was in the car with the kids ready to leave and he came out with a golf club and smashed the back of the car.

“I’d been ringing the mental health team every day for weeks begging for help. Nobody was listening.” After twice trying to kill himself in 2014, James was diagnosed with PTSD in 2016.

But Kate says after a two-week course run by charity Combat Stress, he was left without support.

She said: “He was on the waiting list of the local mental health team but hadn’t started any treatment with them. His medication wasn’t working but nobody would review it.

“He was getting worse and I knew something bad was about to happen. I saw the signs. It was horrendous.”

James was in the Queen’s Dragoon Guards, serving in Bosnia in 2000 and Iraq in 2003, 2004 and 2006.

Members of his regiment were honoured after destroying more than 20 Iraqi tanks in fierce fighting in 2003.

Just before that tour, Kate says James “got a bullet in his cap badge” after an officer started shooting at soldiers in the guardroom.

Later that year, James suffered a head injury after being thrown from a vehicle in Germany when it crashed.

Kate said: “Ever since he’s suffered chronic headaches. His personality changed too.

“He started suffering from anxiety and anger. But the Army sent him straight back to work.” By 2007, after another Iraq tour in which close friend Paul Farrelly was blown up by a roadside bomb, James had reached breaking point.

Kate said: “He was suffering from PTSD but it wasn’t recognised. He would hide in lockers. Before he quit, he was demoted from lance corporal