A Seaham soldier who feared he'd never become a dad after suffering severe injuries in battle is celebrating Father’s Day.
Dean Middleton is a real-life superhero to sons Max, six, and Jude, two, after surviving against the odds and using his experiences to support others at Help for Heroes.
Dean, now 38, was on patrol in Afghanistan in December 2010 when his tank struck an IED and the blast nearly killed him.
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Dean’s body sustained a battering, but arriving in hospital, his surgeon’s main concern was that his brain was swelling dangerously fast.
He said: “The surgeons had no choice but to cut away half of my skull. I now have a titanium plate in place of the missing bone,” said Dean who was a member of the elite 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment.
“Although the blast ended my dream career, I genuinely believe my life is better than it would’ve been if I hadn’t been blown up.
“It’s the reason I married my wife, Jade. She’d qualified as a nurse and came to see how I was doing. We’ve now been married for 12 years, and have two beautiful boys: Max, who is six and Jude, who is two,” he said.
“Recovering from my injury wasn’t easy and I had to work at it, but I have achieved so much. Now as a father, I’m able to show my boys that anything is possible.
“I was excited to discover that Help for Heroes offered sports as a way to recover from injury, it really helped me rebuild my life,” said Dean who now supports other veterans as an Activity and Wellbeing Practitioner at Help for Heroes.
Help for Heroes has just launched The Veterans War campaign to raise awareness that when a conflict ends, the battles for some don’t – they just stop making the headlines.
Dean said: "I worked really hard to get back to a place where I’ve had the opportunity to do extreme challenges such as the Arch to Arc triathlon, which no one would have thought possible at the start of my recovery journey. I want to use this as a way of showing my kids never to limit themselves.
“My boys love Marvel and superheroes, Max particularly. He has a pair of superhero pyjamas which he points at and says, Spiderman and Batman must wear ‘Daddy Deano pyjamas’, ‘Deano’ being me.
"He also tells his friends at nursery that I’m a real superhero which is very sweet.”
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