Sharing this remarkable story of Photographer Giles
Duley who lost 3 limbs to a landmine in Kandahar,
Afghanistan… and who wants to get back to shooting as soon as
possible.
RICHARD GLADSTONE from The Observer caught up with Giles Duley
and chatted to him about his recovery from the brink of death.
“ABSOLUTELY!” – that was the defiant word spoken by triple amputee
photographer Giles Duley when asked if he intends to return to work
in war-torn Afghanistan.
The 39-year-old has been down a long road to recovery after
losing both his legs and an arm after stepping on a landmine. Even
though the road ahead to complete recovery is still far away, Mr
Duley remains upbeat. He spent 110 days in total in hospital before
going to the military rehabilitation facility at Headley Court,
near Epsom, Surrey, where he is currently undergoing gruelling,
intensive physiotherapy to get walking again.
Mr Duley lost one leg below the knee, the other leg above the
knee and his left arm has been severed above the elbow.
Last Wednesday, The Observer caught up with the photographer to
see how his rehabilitation was going.
He now has two prosthetic legs and a prosthetic left arm.
and from 8am to 4pm, five days a week he has to undergo intensive
fitness training. “To work using prosthetic legs it takes 260 per
cent more effort than walking with normal legs, so you have to be
strong and fit,” Mr Duley explained. His physiotherapy, which is
expected to last another five months, includes swimming, weight
lifting, rowing and other types of fitness.
Speaking about that fateful day, which changed his life forever,
Mr Duley said: “Most people are knocked unconscious by the force of
the bomb but I was fully conscious the whole time. I was thrown to
the ground and I remember a sudden calm feeling. “I knew straight
away that my legs had gone and at that point I thought I was going
to die. I was bleeding everywhere.
“Soldiers had to go around with metal detectors to see if there
were any more devices.”
The photographer was in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan with
US troops on February 7 working as a freelancer for the Camera
Press agency when the accident happened. He intended to cover the
plight of bomb victims while working for the Camera Press agency
but snapped up the chance to join frontline troops in Afghanistan,
and had been in the war-torn country for less than two weeks when
he was wounded.
Mr Duley praised the troops on the ground, saying they were
‘brilliant’ getting him bandaged up and rushed to the hospital in
Kandahar. “They gave me a cigarette, which was probably the best
cigarette I had in my life,” he said.
The photographer, who has been taking pictures in conflict zones
for seven years, said he fought to stay awake the whole time he was
taken to hospital, worried that if he passed out, he would die. He
said: “There have been several journalists and photographers killed
by landmines recently. Two men in the same profession as me were
killed in Libya. “I’ve also built up a friendship with Joao Silva,
another photographer, who suffered similar injuries two months
before I had my accident.
“I was incredibly lucky, as another man who suffered exactly the
same injuries as me a week later did not make it to the hospital.
“There have been less than 20 triple amputees who have survived
since the war started in Afghanistan.”
He had another brush with death earlier in his career after
stepping on a landmine in Angola in Africa. Thankfully the device
did not go off. “I’ve always known the risks doing this sort of
work but it’s something you have to accept,” he told the
Observer.
Following his accident in February the photographer was
inundated with messages from friends, family and well-wishers, who
praised him for his humour and resilience. Sue Stoten, landlady of
the Hastings Arms, where Mr Duley worked, set up a fund to raise
money for his recovery, and hundreds of pounds were already donated
within days of his accident. So far more than £4,000 has been
collected by well-wishers.
The publican also gave her £750 prize money to Mr Duley’s
recovery fund after winning the Shepherd Neame’s Tenanted Pub of
the Year in the brewery’s annual pub awards. Mr Duley lived in High
Street in Old Town for eight years before moving to London two
years ago. He planned to move back to Hastings in March following
his stint in Afghanistan and launch a magazine charting the
war.
Mr Duley spent 10 years as a photographer in the fashion and
music industries in both the USA and Europe before focusing on
humanitarian projects, and has worked in Sudan, Angola and Congo.
He has worked with Medecins sans Frontieres, as well as other
charities.
His work has been exhibited and published worldwide in
publications like Vogue and the Sunday Times. He ran the tough
Marathon des Sables across the Sahara desert in 2007, a six-day
gruelling race, to raise money for research into Alzheimer’s
disease following the death of his mother from dementia.
Mr Duley started walking on his new legs two weeks ago and
remains in fighting spirit. He said: “I’ve literally had hundreds
of emails from people encouraging me to go back to work when I
recover. In fact, when I regained consciousness I vowed to myself I
would not stop doing what I do. “I hope to be walking independently
by Christmas and plan to be sitting in the Hastings Arms with a
pint by then.”