Shropshire trio join team jetting off to Invictus Games
A team of 72 wounded and injured current and former military personnel - including three from Shropshire - have flown to Australia for the fourth Invictus Games.
Competitors from 18 nations will compete in 11 medal sports with events being staged across Sydney, including at Sydney Olympic Park and in Sydney Harbour. The event will begin with an opening ceremony on Saturday at the city’s Opera House.
Among those on the plane at Heathrow were Paul Twitchell and John Hill, from Telford. Mr Twitchell, 44, was an armourer in the RAF who was diagnosed with depression and PTSD, and will compete in sitting volleyball and swimming.
Mr Hill, 49, is a former Army sergeant turned railway engineer who found the change to civilian life difficult and discovered a passion for sport.
He will compete in powerlifting and indoor rowing.
Clive Smith, 33, from Shrewsbury, who lost both of his legs in Afghanistan when a bomb he was attempting to defuse blew up in 2010, will make his third appearance at the games by taking part in wheelchair rugby.
