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Bramley mum pleads to care for her injured soldier son
The family of a Bramley soldier brain damaged by a bomb in Iraq say they face a fight to bring him home.
Since June Lance Corporal Martin Edwards, 27, has been at Daniel Yorath House in Garforth, Leeds, a residential rehabilitation unit for people with brain injuries.
But three years after he was injured his mum and stepdad John and Julie Durcan, of Bramley, want to bring him home where they say they can give him all the love and support he needs.
A spokeswoman for Daniel Yorath House said no-one is detained at the centre. If a resident cannot make his or her own decision, the care team, parents and – in this case – a solicitor would all make the decision.
L/Cpl Edwards, the face of the Poppy Appeal last year, had to learn to walk and talk again after being wounded in October 2006, as his vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Basra.
The sniper-trained soldier was hit in the head by a piece of shrapnel, leaving him with brain damage and his left arm and leg disabled.
Since the accident, L/Cpl Edwards has been cared for in several rehabilitation homes.
Mrs Durcan, 46, said: "He comes home every Sunday and we have coped very well. I can do all his personal care and dressing him and everything that he needs. Martin has got to the point where he doesn't want to do this any more. He just wants to come home and be with his family.
"There's nothing stronger than a mother's bond, it doesn't matter how old your children are. I know my own son and I can see it in his eyes that he's not happy.
"He will always need someone to take care of him. They say we cannot give him the level of care he gets at Daniel Yorath at the moment but we know we can."
Mr Durcan added that the family was bidding for a new council house that could better accommodate Martin."
Helen Tridgell, from Daniel Yorath House, run by the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust (Birt), said: "I want to stress that we do not detain anybody against their will or (against] what is right for them.
Daniel Yorath is the last stage before people return into the community. People are free to go home any time. If people cannot make decisions we work with the social worker, solicitor if they're involved, and make sure the decision to move is the right one. The parents would be very much involved.
"(The parents] want to do the best they can. What we are saying is you need some help. We are absolutely supportive of him going home once the right care package is in place."
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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