HE may have lost his legs, but that did not stop courageous Corporal Neil Heritage taking part in a sponsored walk in aid of a new pair of limbs for him.
Neil, 24, was joined by more than 300 people of all ages - some friends and family, others who had never met him - in the walk from Bournemouth Pier to Boscombe Pier and back on May 15.
Walkers, including Neil, his eight-months-pregnant partner Claire Renshaw and her son Callum, five, as well as Daily Echo editor Neal Butterworth, and several runners took part to collect cash for our Let's Help Neil campaign.
The Daily Echo threw its weight behind appeal after hearing how Neil had lost both legs above the knee in a suicide bombing while working with Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) in Iraq last November.
Neil's colleagues at London-based EOD set up a fund to raise funds to pay for adaptations to the family's Hamworthy home and we backed that by pledging to raise £30,000 for new, high-tech prosthetics to replace the ones Neil received on the NHS.
The appeal was already more than £19,000 towards that target and the walk, organised by Nuffield Tops Day Nursery, where Claire works, took that total to more than £21,500, just with donations and walkers paying a £1 entry fee - with sponsorship money still to come in.
One fundraiser - ex Guards Parachute Company member Harry Moss - had collected £1,200 in sponsorship alone.
Neil told the Daily Echo: "We weren't expecting anything as big as this. It's got a lot bigger than we first thought. It's brilliant to see all these people here."
Claire added: "I didn't think there would be this many people but there's loads. Neil has seen a lot of his friends who have come down as well, which is really nice."
Walkers were asked to think of one of Neil's colleagues who set up the original fund. He was involved in a hit and run accident ten days ago and is currently in a life-threatening condition in hospital with brain injuries.
send cheques payable to Neil Heritage Fund to: Lorraine May, Daily Echo, Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, BH2 6HH.
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