Campie Primary School

Last week Primary 7 were pleased to welcome Private Paul Lambert to Campie, who attended Campie and the Grammar as a young person, along with his dad, Mr. Lambert, and Paul’s fiance Gillian. Paul spoke to us about how he came to be in the Army and the difficult and strict training, which allowed him to travel around the world and experience extreme environments. He told us about how much he enjoyed being in the Army and said, “If you work with your best friends, it’s less like work and more like fun.” He had campaigns in both Iraq and Afghanistan, but during the last trip to ‘Afghan’, he stepped on an IED (improvised explosive device) while holding a ladder for a friend who was looking through a window from a compound.  He was thrown backwards and aside from injury to many important organs, including his heart, he lost his left leg and right leg above the knee.  So far he has had 30 operations as a result of this accident.

Though Paul has faced difficult challenges in his recovery, he was inspirational in his outlook and showed a sense of humour when talking about many of the obstacles that would have been disheartening for most of us. He continues to go through rehabilitation and should be able to stand in two years time with the help of new legs made by an Edinburgh company.  In the meantime, Paul has been working to help raise funds for Poppy Scotland and Help for Heroes, including a cycle (pedalling with his arms) that raised £6000!  We’ll be writing letters to Paul about his visit (and will try to get a photo to put on the blog!) and would very much like for him to come back to visit in the future.