Shropshire and Telford veterans on their marks for Invictus games

The Invictus Games will take 72 wounded, injured and sick veterans and service personnel from the UK to Australia to compete in a number of sports.

The adaptive multi-sport event, created by Prince Harry, aims to help ex-military personnel recover and will see 18 countries compete against each other.

Representing Team UK will be two veterans from Telford and one from Shrewsbury.

The selection process for Team UK was based on both the benefit the games will give an individual as part of their recovery, combined with performance and commitment to training.

Paul Twitchell and John Hill are the two competitors from Telford who will fly to Australia later this month.

Mr Twitchell, 44, from Telford, was an armourer in the RAF who was diagnosed with depression and PTSD, and will compete in sitting volleyball and swimming.

Life-changing

He said: "I was at a very low point when I was diagnosed with PTSD. I was an alcoholic and I was suffering badly with depression. I nearly lost my life through it.

"Receiving the notification that I had been accepted for the team was the turning point. Life has been fantastic since then.

"I am a completely different person to last year. This has been a life-changing experience."

Mr Hill, also from Telford is a former army sergeant turned railway engineer who said he needed something to spark his passion for sport.

Set to compete in powerlifting and indoor rowing, the 49-year-old added: "Every day in the army there's a goal to reach - when you leave the army your goal becomes get up, go to work, go to the gym and go home.

"That goal becomes so distant that you can't see it anymore.

"I've now got a sense of achievement at the end of this journey."

Clive Smith, from Shrewsbury, lost both of his legs in Afghanistan when a bomb he was attempting to defuse blew up in 2010.

The 33-year-old will make his third appearance at the games later this month in wheelchair rugby.

"I would be lying if I said we're looking for anything other than a gold medal," he said.

"We are not going to just make up the numbers, we are going to compete and prove a point."

The 2018 Invictus Games are taking place in Sydney, Australia.

Partnered with Jaguar Land Rover, the games start on October 20 and run until October 27.