Soldier hurt by IED walks bride down aisle

A soldier whose leg was shattered by a bomb while he served in Afghanistan has walked his bride down the aisle.

Ben Bainbridge, 30, underwent months of rehabilitation after he was injured by an improvised explosive device in 2010.

Mr Bainbridge, from Skidby, East Yorkshire, said walking alongside new wife Steph on their wedding day was "an amazing feeling".

He said he could finally "start having the life" he had always wanted with his family.

He said Friday's ceremony was "a light at the end of the tunnel" following a long recovery, which involved him receiving a customised leg brace.

"It's an amazing feeling of just walking down the aisle, a lot easier and better then I have without a leg brace. But to see Steph come down the aisle looking so beautiful as she did, I couldn't wish for a better day and night as we did.

"I'm not going to lie I was shaking. I was nervous... seeing Steph walk down that aisle was very emotional for me. I did have a tear in my eye for it."

He said walking out of the church with his wife was "a very proud moment" for him.

His wife, who is 24 weeks pregnant with their third child, said: "He just keeps amazing me.

"Before we were thinking is he going to have to be in a wheelchair to go down the aisle because he does struggle, but now with his new leg brace I just think it's amazing that he doesn't need to think about walking."

Mrs Bainbridge met her husband in 2009 when he was aged 18, just months before he left to go on patrol with the Yorkshire Regiment in Helmand Province.

"I've seen him at his lowest point ever," she said.

"Seeing such a bubbly, outgoing character that he was, to then him coming back from Afghanistan and going through what he's gone through, he was in a real dark place and he's had to pull himself out of that place."

She added her husband was "now back to normal".

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