The Interview: Andy Grant on life-changing injury to medal success

Interview with Andy Grant

Bootle-born Andy Grant joined the Royal Marines aged 17. Three years later he was hit by an explosion in Afghanistan and suffered catastrophic injuries including a severely damaged right leg. 

Following countless operations and against doctors’ advice, Andy chose to have his leg amputated below the knee. The surgery gave his prized Liverpool FC tattoo a twisted alteration – ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ became ‘You’ll Never Walk’.

We caught up with Andy to find out how this terse prediction couldn’t have been more wrong.

Interview by Lawrence Saunders

 

Could you explain what happened to you in Afghanistan and the injuries you sustained?

It was 5.30am and I was on a routine foot patrol. My best friend jumped over a ditch and unfortunately what he didn’t see was that on the other side was a trip wire attached to two trees.

He hit the trip wire and two bombs went off in between us, blowing him forward and me back. I suffered 27 different injuries including shrapnel in my face, two broken forearms, a broken elbow, a broken sternum and both lower legs were broken – I was in a pretty bad way.

For the first five minutes after it happened I couldn’t feel any pain, it was just panic. Thankfully all the lads calmed me down and then it was 35 minutes of pain to be honest. I knew there was something seriously wrong with my right leg.

Within 40 minutes I was on a helicopter heading to a hospital in Afghanistan where I had two life-saving operations before being flown back to the UK.

How did it get to the point where you had to decide whether or not to have your leg amputated?

The doctors initially gave me the option of amputation but they were confident they could fix my leg; it would just take about 18 months to process.

Obviously I didn’t want to rush into the amputation if it didn’t need to be done so I decided to give the ‘Ilizarov’ frame a go, which is basically a huge cage around your leg. It worked.

The bone that needed to grow back, grew back, and it stabilised everything but the problem was there was still so much nerve damage.

Although the leg had healed in a sense, I just wasn’t living the type of life I wanted to live.

Being in the marines, I was used to living life at 100 miles an hour so life at a snail’s pace just wasn’t for me.

I had the leg amputated in late November 2010 and started my rehabilitation just after Christmas when I was given a number of prosthetic legs.

It took me about six months to master walking and then I started to run again.

“In 2014 I took part in the first Invictus Games – a mini Paralympics for injured soldiers set up by Prince Harry. I managed to grab a couple of gold medals.”

When did you decide it was time to get serious with your running again after the operation?

I’d done a few half marathons, but nothing too competitive. Then in 2014 I took part in the first Invictus Games. It’s basically a mini Paralympics for injured soldiers set up by Prince Harry.

I managed to grab a couple of gold medals in the 400m and 1,500m. It was a massive springboard for me onto other challenges.

I did initially want to go for the Paralympics but the longest distance they do is 400m – I like to run 5,000m and 10,000m.

When I realised that the Paralympics wasn’t an option I started searching for other amputees who run 10k and I came across a Canadian runner called Rick Ball.

As far as I could see, Rick was the fastest single leg amputee over 10k in the world and I thought ‘I’m going to have a go at breaking that record’.

I went to Liverpool Harriers and joined up with Tony Clark, who became my running coach.

We gave ourselves six months and started training very intensely three times a week. I broke the record in July 2016 with a time of 37 minutes and 17 seconds.

Aside from the incident in Afghanistan, you’ve been through some pretty horrendous trauma in your life, including losing your mum when you were just 12 years old. How have you managed to cope?

I try and use the bad things that have happened to me to spur me on. Losing my mum was by far the hardest thing I’ve been through, so I try to compare that event to other challenges in my life.

Joining the marines was tough but it was nothing compared to losing my mum. Getting blown up wasn’t ideal but it was nothing compared to the pain I suffered at 12.

My dad has also been amazing throughout everything. He’s been my best mate since my mum passed away.

Also since getting injured, one thing I’ve felt very lucky about is being surrounded by other marines and other soldiers who have suffered similar injuries.

I was in a military hospital and a military rehabilitation centre. With the banter between the lads you don’t really get a chance to feel sorry for yourself.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been some dark times and I have really opened up in the book and tried to be as honest as I could about those moments.

 

 

Football’s Jamie Carragher and snooker’s Ronnie O’Sullivan provided the foreword and afterword respectively for your autobiography ‘You’ll Never Walk’. How did these two sporting greats get involved?

On the Monday morning after my first weekend back from hospital, Jamie knocked at my door and came in for a cup of tea. Being a Bootle lad and a massive Liverpool FC supporter, he’s my hero. For him to come and visit me was unreal.

Since I met him he has given me his phone number and said ‘if you need anything, I’m here for you’. He’s donated tonnes of stuff which I’ve auctioned off for military charities and has become a mate now, which is a bit surreal.

With Ronnie, I met him during a documentary we made about my attempt to beat the 10k record. It turns out Ronnie is a keen runner himself and has used it to help him deal with some tough times, so we had a lot in common.

He loves Liverpool and has got a lot of friends here. Whenever he’s up in the city he’ll drop me a text asking if I fancy a run.

Again, it’s a bit surreal. I didn’t think I’d have Ronnie O’Sullivan texting me asking to go for a run but it’s great.

What’s next for you? Have you got any other challenges on the horizon? 

I’ve got the Rock ‘n’ Roll Liverpool Marathon on 19-20 May – that’s going to be my next big challenge. It’s the first marathon I’ve done.

That’s my sole focus at the moment but I’d love to get my 10k time down even further in the future and to try and break the half marathon record as well.

‘You’ll Never Walk’ is out on 24 May. Andy will attend a launch event for the book at Toxteth Library on 22 May as part of WowFest 2018.