I’ve never really been the emotional type to be honest but as my lad Dominic stood at the front door ready to go off to join the army, I was a bit choked up.

It was Sunday, November 5th (2006) and he was packed and ready to get the train up to the Infantry Training Centre at Catterick, North Yorkshire.

It only seemed like a couple of weeks before when he had burst through the front door of our house in Stoke-on-Trent and said: “I know what I’m going to do dad. I want to join the army.”

Of course like any parent would I immediately thought of Iraq and Afghanistan and the perils our boys are facing in those places.

But I put my fears to the back of my mind.

Dominic is a strong healthy lad who loves the outdoors and thrashing around on his motorbike.

He had been an average student at school and since leaving as a 16-year-old had just been hanging around with his mates having fun – but he wasn’t going anywhere.

He has always been a good lad but I thought the army could be the making of him. I thought it would make a man of him.

“If that’s what you want Dominic, go for it,” I told him hiding my own fears.

Ever since I had split up with his mother five years earlier and she had moved to Australia, Dominic and I had grown closer. It had been just me and him since then.

I had retired early from my job as a fibre glass specialist in 2002 with heart problems and can’t get around too well.

So that pretty much meant that Dominic had become my best friend as I spent a lot of time at home.

I knew I would miss him, but I was determined not to stand in his way.

He is a robust lad and a strapping six footer and has a great sense of humour so the army seemed right.

His granddad Colin had served in the army for 22 years and he was a big factor in Dominic’s decision.

When he left for Catterick that day I felt proud of him. He was trying to do something useful with his life.

I wished him all the best at the door as he left. He was totally up for it and couldn’t wait to get going.

I missed him straight away but I like my own company and got on with my life.

He rang up a few times to tell me how much he was enjoying it. It was the adventure he was hoping for and he didn’t regret joining for one second. He was loving it.

Then I got a phone call from Colin saying Dominic had been in an accident.

That was on Friday, November 17th. Dominic had only been in the army for 12 days.

But the army hadn’t told us what had happened. All we knew was that he was in hospital and we assumed it wasn’t too serious – otherwise the army would have told us. Or so we thought.

I tried not to worry but then the next day Colin called back and said Dominic had taken a turn for the worse.

He needed an operation.

“What kind of operation?” I demanded.

Colin said the army still hadn’t explained what had happened but it was something to do with a drill sergeant throwing something at Dominic and catching him on the head.

I could hardly believe what I was hearing.

Later that day Dominic had an operation to remove a blood clot from his brain.

I wanted to rush up to the hospital to be with him but because of my health I wasn’t able to. I can get out of breath quite easily so I had to stay put and wait for the news to come through from Colin who had gone to the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Meanwhile his mother Lynette Christopher was flying over from Australia.

Later that day Colin told me the operation had been a success but that Dominic had slipped into a coma. He was in intensive care. I wish I could have got up there. I felt so helpless waiting on the end of a phone.

I was just thinking ‘what the hell has happened to my lad’.

Dominic was stable but he remained in a coma.

Then the press started to show an interest and slowly the story started to come out.

It seemed like something had happened during drill practice to anger Sergeant Adrian Lines and he had hurled his swagger stick or drill baton at a wall and broken it.

He then hurled a fragment of at the new recruits and it had hit Dominic in the head.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing but there still seemed a lot of uncertainty about what had gone off.

To be honest by at that point I didn’t really care, I was just preying for Dominic to come out of his coma.

That is all I cared about.

And thank God by the following Friday he had. He had been in a coma for six days. I had spent most of by the phone waiting for news.

But my Dominic is a tough little soldier and I knew he would battle back.

I arranged the next day – the Saturday - for one of his mates to drive me up to the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough where he was being treated. I had to see him. It had been hell being so far away from him at such a desperate time. It was a struggle because I get out of breath after a couple of steps but I made it.

To be honest he was in a bit of a state. His head looked a bit of a mess. He was talking as if he had had a stroke – all slurred – and he was a paralysed down his left hand side.

It was difficult to take it all in. The last time I had seen him he had been bursting with enthusiasm for his new life in the army but now he looked like he had come back from a war zone.

But all he had been doing was square bashing. I was not too happy. How had he got into this state? I was angry and wanted answers.

I knew what the army had said had happened and what the papers had said but it was still so unclear.

I gave him a massive hug and there were a few tears to say the least.

Then Dominic started to tell me his version of what had happened.

The army and the newspaper reports had said the Sergeant had thrown a broken fragment of the swagger stick into the 30-strong group and Dominic had been the unlucky one who was hit on the head.

But Dominic told me a different story that day.

He said by mistake he had turned left instead of right with the rest of the group and the Sergeant had lost his rag and thrown the swagger stick straight at him – like a javelin - for getting it wrong.

It hit him above the right ear and effectively speared his skull causing a four inch wound.

If you have never seen a swagger stick it is like a truncheon, brass tipped and about three feet long and weighs about 9lbs – the equivalent of about four and half bags of sugar.

When it hit him in the head Dominic went down but he got up again and returned to barracks where the wound was bandaged.

But he started to feel ill and decided to lie down. When he tried to get up he vomited and his left leg gave way under him and he collapsed unconscious and was rushed to hospital.

He has since been moved to the Rutson Hospital in North Allertom, North Yorkshire for physio therapy treatment.

He can walk now but still has a few problems with his left ankle and he can’t use his left arm properly yet.

But we are optimistic he will make a full recovery. Mentally he is as sharp as a razor but we know it is going to be some time before physically he is 100 per cent again.

It is no good holding a grudge at the end of the day. Dominic hasn’t criticised anyone for what happened. He just wants to get on with his army career.

The Sergeant has been suspended and there will be a full investigation. But that is not going to help Dominic get better and back to doing what he loves – and he was loving it in the army before this happened.

I want justice to be done and for the truth to come out but more than anything I want Dominic to make a full recovery and carry on with his army career because that is what he wants.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “The Royal Military Police are investigating the circumstances that may have led to the injuries sustained.”

Comments (3) >>

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written by lisa, December 03, 2007

hiya babe i'm realy orry about what has happend to you i hope you get better very soon love ya babe xxx

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written by paula, July 20, 2007

hiya dom, cant even imagine wat you went through, i would say it was ur strength and courage wat pulled you threw this and u are a very strong willed person. and when i first saw you i would never of thought you had been through all this and the recovery you av made, you dont seem to let it get in your way or ask for sympathy u are a very very strong person mate and im dead proud off ya you are a sound lad im glad to have met ya mate luv x paula x thomas x paige x

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written by zoey, July 17, 2007

i feel so sorry for him i cant believe how well he is now from what he was wen he was in hospital he is doing so well.in fact he is here wiv me now

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