Captain Kate Philp, Ambassador Royal Artillery
Kate was commanding a Warrior tank in Afghanistan back in 2008 when it ran over a 50kg bomb.
Kate remembers
“I was conscious throughout the whole thing – I remember a loud noise, a bit of a funny smell, some smoke.”
Her first instinct was to make sure the rest of her 6-man team were ok but was later to discover that tragically Colour Sergeant Krishna Dura, a Gurkha Sniper Team Commander had been killed in the attack.
Kate was rushed to a field hospital in Helmand and underwent hours of emergency surgery. It seemed like her leg had been saved.
However back in the UK experts from Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham broke the news that her left leg was badly shattered. She had a choice of either keeping her leg, with the risk of not being able to walk again properly, or having it amputated and be fitted with a prosthetic limb.
”For me it was a simple question of function over cosmetics.”
“I asked whether with a prosthetic I would be able to run, play tennis and ski. When the reply came “yes” I responded “that’s fine then”.
Today, Kate is still in the Army and hopes one day to return to Afghanistan on active service.She has taken on the role as Ambassador for The Soldiers’ Charity with the aim of promoting the charity and their work to younger people, she
is determined to make an impact.
