Stuart, however, has teased me ever since about that incident as he liked dancing to be perfect. Although he had to give up his job as a Lifeguard at the local swimming pool, he was very determined to live a normal life alone in his flat in Hemel and, certainly, nothing was going to stop him continuing with Scottish Dancing.
I remember driving Stuart to a Garden Dance with him giving me instructions, from memory, on how to get there when he could not see properly! I was also amazed when, again with poor sight, he was MC for a dance that he had written and was able to instruct the dancers and follow the music perfectly. Television was his lifeline when he still had sight and with his remarkable memory for facts, he would reel off the names of all the players and their history in whatever sport was prominent that week.
In Winter he particularly liked Strictly Come Dancing and, again, knew the names of every Celebrity and Professional dancer, present and past. This could be a bit tedious for the listener but I imagine came in very handy on quiz nights at Potten End. Life was becoming very difficult indeed.
Stuart was a stubborn man and, like most of us, he wished to keep his independence. This meant that he turned down some offers of help from Social Services and refused to even think about moving to a Home for the Disabled.
Stuart now had company during Lockdown controlling Alexa with his voice. He openly spoke about the mental health issues which he has faced in his own life as a result of his military career. Stuart is a member of the Towns Fund Board and is in regular conversation with local stakeholders.
Stuart is a keen runner and loves ultra-running in the mountains. Read Stuart's story, as reported by the Times, here.
All rights reserved. There is no mincing his words. He has been teetotal for eight years. He is speaking days after General Sir Patrick Sanders, who is currently commander of Strategic Command and served with Anderson in the 2nd Battalion, revealed how his battlefield experiences in Iraq had left him suicidal and drinking alone at 2am. When he was eight his father, Samuel, died from a brain tumour that was triggered by skin cancer blamed on his time spent in the sun deployed overseas.
He helped out in a carpet shop for the first few months after leaving and then decided to sign up to the army. It was all going well until eight months into his service, when he had turned 17, and he was accidentally shot in a training exercise during a live firing attack. The bullet from an SA80 fired at point blank range shattered his foot. Over the coming months he had several major operations to save his foot and lower leg but was told it would have to be amputated.
They offered to rehabilitate him themselves and after ten months he returned to full active service. He was deployed to west Belfast in — a particularly violent year after the IRA broke its ceasefire with a bomb in the London Docklands.
Soon afterwards he became one of the youngest lance corporals in the division. If I had taken my own life the only person close enough to me at the time was my mom. Mr Anderson, aged 45, says training for the race, which has took place on four previous occasions since , has not gone according to plan.
His mountain training has been limited due to the lockdown, and not long after he started running in Snowden and the Clee Hills an abductor muscle injury left him sidelined for two months. There's a real science to it. It's not just run and hope for the best. Mr Anderson said he hopes that by completing the run he can raise awareness of the issue, and also wants to use his status as an MP to push for improved support for veterans and for mental health in general.
He said: "When I hear of veterans who have committed suicide my heart sinks. I've been to funerals of colleagues where you see a three or four-year-old child wondering why daddy isn't coming home and what all these soldiers are doing here. Thankfully we have moved on from where we were when I suffered, but we can do a lot more.
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