1. WEEKEND EDITION
Saturday, March 22, 2014
£1.50
MOUSEHOLD GARDEN CENTRE
NATIONAL GARDEN GIFT TOKENS
Top quality open ground FRUIT TREES
Excellent selection from only £10.80 for 2 year olds
RASPBERRY CANES £1.20 each, 10 for £11
Magnolias. First class roses from £2.95
Young shrubs £1.95, 5 for £8.80
Levingtons 70l Multipurpose compost £5.50, 2 for £10
J.A.B. Bowers 56l Multipurpose £3.95, 3 for £10
Growbags £1.95 each, 3 for £5.50
Growmore £4.40 for 5kgs
63 Mousehold Lane, Sprowston (Ring Road), Norwich NR7 8HP
www.mousehold.net
Open 9am - 5pm Mon - Sat | 10am - 4pm Sundays
VEGETABLE PLANTS £1.99 PER PACK
BEDDING PLANTS FROM £1.95 PER PACK
TOMATO PLANTS 70p each 10 for £6.50
GRASS SEED from £2.80 for 500g, 20kg £71
ALPINES and HERBS £1.40 each 5 for £6
MOTHER’S DAY PLANTS
GUARANTEEDTO PLEASE
CLEMATIS £7.45 EACH, 3 FOR £21
SEED POTATOES & ONION SETS
FROM £2.95 for 2.5kg
HURRY WHILE STOCKS LAST
SUTTONS SEEDS ɀ S + P SILENT FANS
ɀ TROJAN GROW TENTS & HYDROPONICS
ɀ FRIENDLY SERVICE ɀ FREE ADVICE ɀ DOWN TO EARTH PRICES
Full range of straight and organic fertilisers and
lawn care weighed up for unbeatable value.
7kg tub of organic poultry manure pellets £5.35
Enjoy
nature
onyour
doorstep
All the build-up to City’s crunch game
in The Pink Un and see page 16
for Yell Army campaign latest
WITH
7-DAYTV
GUIDE
Eastern DailyPress
Weekend
OnshowatNorwich
CastleuntilApril27
Quirkyfact:WhatdidRomans
doforus?Theyinvented
concrete.
See pages 8&9
March22-March28,2014
Edith
Cavell’s
legacy
DidNorfolkheroine
helpyourancestor
tofreedom?
pages4-5
Eastern DailyPress
THE
& 7-DAY
TV
GUIDE
72-page
Weekend
magazine
As big as it gets
>> Watch it >> Listen to it >> Follow it >> Your 20-page guide to all the weekend’s sport
PinkUnThe
Eastern DailyPress Saturday, March 22, 2014
Boss can
inspire us
to safety,
insists
Tettey
– Page 4
Date: Sunday, March 24, 1985
Norwich City...............................1
Gordon Chisholm OG (46)
Sunderland......
............................0
Date: Sunday, April 5, 1992
Sunderland......
.............................1
John Byrne (34)
Norwich City..............................0
Date: Tuesday, May 4, 2004
d
1
YellowisthethemeasfamilyandfriendssayfarewelltobeautifulShannon –seepage5
200
PAGES
TODAY
WEATHER 2
LOTTERY RESULTS 8
UK & WORLD NEWS 8-10
CONTACT US 12
OPINION 34-37
LETTERS 38-39
ANNOUNCEMENTS 40
CLASSIFIEDS 66-71
FUEL VOUCHER MOTORS
SPORT PINK UN www.EDP24.co.uk
I See pages 6-7 for our exclusive
interview with Sgt Slater.
As he lay in hospital after being
struck by a roadside bomb while
serving in Afghanistan, Sgt
Duncan Slater feared he may
never be able to walk again or
play a part in his new-born daugh-
ter’s life.
Now, the double-leg amputee –
who recently completed a gruel-
ling trek with Prince Harry to the
South Pole – is to use his experi-
ence to help children around the
world who are suffering because
of limb loss.
The 34-year-old RAF veteran, of
Scole, near Diss, pictured, has just
become an ambassador for
Elizabeth’s Legacy of Hope.
The charity – co-founded by
Victoria Bacon, wife of South
Norfolk MP Richard Bacon – was
started to help children in devel-
oping countries who have lost
limbs due to illness, malnutrition,
accidents and violence.
POLAR TREK
VETERAN’S
NEW MISSIONDouble-legamputee’sbidtohelpchildrenaroundtheworld
Andrew Papworth
andrew.papworth@archant.co.uk

2. 6
NEWS local
Eastern DailyPressSATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2014
Like us at:
www.facebook.com/edp24
From fighting
for his life to
trekking to
South Pole...
how soldier
beat the odds
to walk again
A newly-married sergeant Duncan
Slater went out to Afghanistan in
2009 overjoyed with the news that he
was about to become a father.
He was lifted out of Helmand prov-
ince by his colleagues on stretcher,
fighting for his life after being hit by
a roadside bomb detonated by an
insurgent – while his wife was five
months pregnant.
As a platoon sergeant and experi-
enced serviceman who had done
tours of duty in Iraq and helped with
the clear up of Hurricane Katrina in
the US, it was his job in his joint
Army, Navy and RAF role to help
those wounded in action get the medi-
cal attention they needed.
But while on patrol training the
new Afghan security forces in Babaji
as part of Operation Panther’s
Claw, it was him who
would rely on the help
of his colleagues to
save his life.
Amazingly,
despite being
propelled into the
air and landing
30ft away in a
compound, Sgt
Slater was still
conscious after the
explosion, which
went off right under-
neath him.
“I looked at my left arm
and it was completely broken,”
he said.
“I looked down to see if I could
move my legs and I couldn’t really
feel my feet. I could feel bleeding
When Sgt Duncan Slater was hit by a roadside
bomb while on patrol in Afghanistan, he thought
he might never be able to walk again – or be a proper
father to his daughter. ANDREW PAPWORTH
spoke to him about that fateful day in 2009, his
four-year recovery and what the future holds.
I looked down to see
if I could move my legs
and I couldn’t really
feel my feet. I could feel
bleeding coming from
somewhere and I wasn’t
sure if I had broken my
back
Duncan Slater
coming from somewhere and I wasn’t
sure if I had broken my back.”
The 34-year-old from Inverness
knew from his training that help
would potentially be a long time in
coming.
With his left arm
broken, he was trying
to get a dressing out
and inject himself
with morphine
one-handed.
Luckily, his
training had
included how
to do first aid
one-handed in
anticipation of the
very situation he
now found himself
in.
After about 20 minutes,
Sgt Slater was eventually
found, put on a stretcher and airlifted
to a top-grade medical unit at Camp
Bastion.
Within 22 hours, he was flown to
I Duncan Slater, who was injured while serving with the armed forces. Right, Mr Slater during his trek to the South Pole with
Prince Harry and fellow soldiers who were wounded in battle. Pictures: SONYA DUNCAN/WALKING WITH THE WOUNDED

3. 7
local NEWS
Eastern DailyPress SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2014
Follow us on Twitter
@edp24
Duncan’s new mission: life after the armed forces
Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham so
his wife Kim could be by his side.
“She was five months pregnant,”
he said. “She tried her hardest not to
panic. I don’t know how she did it.
She was amazing.”
Sgt Slater spent between five and
six days in intensive care.
He was then bed-bound for four
months while undergoing operations
to try to help with his injuries.
He said staff at the hospital were
“amazing” and that the bond between
him and other injured service
personnel in the hospital greatly
helped.
However it did not make coming to
terms with what happened any
easier.
Sgt Slater described the “long,
boring days” in hospital where he
would experience a rollercoaster of
emotions changing hour-by-hour.
“It was quite hard,” he said. “A few
days after I got into hospital two
friends of mine were killed a couple
of hundred metres down the road
from where I got blown up.
“It was frustrating that I couldn’t
go to their funerals because I wasn’t
in the condition. It doesn’t do you
much good.”
“There are days when it is quite
depressing and you think: ‘Am I ever
going to be able to get out of this
bed?’ It wasn’t clear and it was look-
ing likely I was never going to be able
to walk again.
“However on a good day you were
thinking: ‘It’s a couple of broken legs,
I’ll be back out for the end of the tour.
“There was a real mix – some days
of excruciating pain and others
where it wasn’t so bad.”
After four months, two nurses
helped Sgt Slater get into a wheel-
chair. Having been bed-bound for
such a long time, Sgt Slater said that
gave him huge freedom to move
about, go to the shops or visit friends.
Duncan Slater has gone
from strength-to-strength
since his operation,
completing a trek to the
South Pole with Prince
Harry and also training
for this year’s London
Marathon.
He said it had not been
easy to learn to walk
again and that he has to
keep up good levels of
fitness to ensure his legs
fit comfortably.
His stumbling block
now, he said, is figuring
out what to do with the
rest of his life now he is
no longer in the armed
forces.
Mr Slater’s work with the
charity Walking With the
Wounded has helped, as he
has embarked on a series
of talks including one at
The Old School in Henley
this week.
After that, he will look
at what courses and
qualifications he can
take with the charity’s
help so he can get back to
work.
Inspirational trek to South Pole with Prince Harry
Sgt Slater embarked
on a year-long
battle to walk at
the Defence Medical
Rehabilitation Unit
in Surrey.
“They tried and
tried and tried but
it wasn’t going my
way,” he said. “The
damage was too
great.”
However there was
one event he was
determined to walk
for – the birth of his
daughter, Lilly.
“It was a big deal for
me just to walk her
out of the hospital,”
he said. “So I dosed
myself up with as
much medication as
I could and managed
to hobble out of the
hospital.”
However, he feared
for the future he
would have with his
daughter.
“I wanted to be
active and do all
things my dad
did with me,” Sgt
Slater said. “I felt
I was not going to
get that chance. It
highlighted all the
things I couldn’t do.
“I felt I wouldn’t be
a good dad because
I was constantly in
pain and dealing
with the dramas of
getting blown up.”
After 12 months
in Headley Court,
doctors told Sgt
Slater they would
have to amputate
his legs to give him
the best chance of
walking.
Sgt Slater said he
did not hesitate
in deciding to
have both his legs
amputated so he
could have a chance
of being able to play
a full part in his
daughter’s life.
He was fitted with
prosthetic legs
six months after
the operation to
amputate.
Battle to walk for birth of daughter
I Duncan Slater, third from right, with fellow members of Walking With The Wounded team,
from left, Ibrar Ali, Conrad Dickenson, Guy Disney, Richard Ire, Prince Harry and Kate Philp, after
reaching the South Pole. Picture: PA
I Duncan Slater
pictured walking again
Duncan Slater become
the first double amputee
to ski to the South
Pole as part of an
inspirational expedition
by the charity Walking
with the Wounded based
at Stody, near Melton
Constable.
Accompanied by their
Royal patron, Prince
Harry, the adventurers
– including four injured
British soldiers –
successfully reached
the bottom of the world
after more than two
weeks pulling sleds
across Antarctica.
Sgt Slater said the
trek was a “once in a
lifetime” opportunity.
That expedition is the
subject of a two-part
documentary on ITV
called Harry’s South
Pole Heroes. The second
part of the show is on
tomorrow at 8pm on
ITV1.