10 January 2024 , 16:38
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With a £120,000 prize at stake, all the stars of TV hit show The Traitors are desperate to triumph.
But as contestant Jonny Holloway has already hinted, he has already won far more than money can buy after battling back from being blown up by an IED in Afghanistan. Also suffering from PTSD and blinded in one eye, he fought for two years to save a badly injured leg before having it amputated. Only then, he said, did he get his life back.
Jonny, 31, the second favourite to win the reality show, said: “For two years I fought to keep my leg despite doctors wanting to amputate it. I was stubborn and believed it would heal. It was a very dark time mentally and physically. I couldn’t put any weight on my leg and being at home and in pain all the time made me feel like a burden to my girlfriend, Lauren.We got married in January 2016 and a few months after that I admitted defeat with my leg and had it amputated below the knee. That was in the June, and a month later I was walking again. It felt as though I had my independence back at the click of a finger. I’m glad I tried everything to keep my leg but suddenly, because of the amputation, I’d got my life back.”
Jonny works out on rowing machine (DAILY MIRROR)Jonny was helped by charity Blesma, the British Limbless Ex-Servicemen’s Association, who are tipping him to win the BBC1 show of deception.
“I definitely wouldn’t bet against Jonny winning,” said its operations director, Tony Bloomfield.
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“I work with people who lose limbs and end up climbing Everest. Stories of people like Jonny inspire others going through a tough time. He’s giving them the confidence that, you know what? I can get on with my life. Many of our members talk about how tough it is at the beginning. You’ve stepped on an IED and been severely injured, lost legs, you’re going through hospital for years. They are in a mentally damaged state. They’ve joined the military for comradeship, to be part of something special and unique and to be out and being active and seeing the world, and now they are in a hospital bed.”
A career as a soldier had filled Jonny’s head since he was a little lad. “Waiting for my twelfth birthday so I could join the Army Cadets felt like for ever,” he recalled. “It was definitely worth it. I loved it and in August 2009 I joined the Army. I was 17 years old.”
He joined the Royal Lancers in the Royal Armoured Corps “working on vehicles and then doing the infantry side, both on the frontline, which suited me perfectly,” he said. His first tour of Afghanistan, one of the last for British Forces, came in 2013. He was in his element. But on March 5, 2014, Jonny, then 21, was driving a Warthog near Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, when it hit an 180lb improvised explosive device.
“This is a 20-ton vehicle and it blew it 14 feet in the air,” he said. “I’m very, very lucky to be alive.”
In those first moments, as he and the vehicle crashed to earth and Taliban insurgents launched a furious attack with rocket-propelled grenades and machine gun fire, Jonny had no idea how badly hurt he was.
“It makes me feel short of breath just thinking about it now,” he said. “I remember opening my eyes and thinking, ‘oh that felt like a proper shuffle’. Then my left foot felt like it was on fire. The force of the explosion had ripped straight through my left leg, shattering everything in its way. After an intense fire fight, the guys eventually got me to safety.”
Jonny on duty with the army before injuring his leg (DAILY MIRROR)But for Jonny, the real battle had only begun. The blast had also given him a brain injury that would affect his short-term memory and concentration. The damage to his right eye was also a bitter blow. “I would wake up every morning feeling sick and dizzy, like I was drunk,” he said. He got around on crutches or in a wheelchair, racked with pain from infections. “I wanted to do everything I could to keep my leg,” he said. Now I realise that was the worst decision in the world. I was paranoid everyone was out to get me, convinced people were watching me through my windows so I’d sit with the curtains drawn.”
The trauma he felt is common. When amputees such as Jonny wake up in hospital, the first thing they see is a Blesma veteran.
“It’s part of rebuilding a person’s life, to see a veteran who can say, ‘it looks bad but look at me, I’ve got my life, you’ll be fine’,” said Tony.
For Jonny, it was a miracle that changed everything. Lauren became pregnant after being told they wouldn’t be able to have children. The Traitors isn’t Jonny’s first TV outing. As well as Blesma he turned to BBC series The Secret Helpers, in which ordinary people in difficulty are coached by unusual advisers.
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“I had two New York cops to thank for helping me regain my confidence and a South African healer and her friend for putting romance back into my marriage.”
Jonny in Traitors (PA)He and Lauren now have Amalie and little brother Maverick and life is more than good. Tony is rooting for him to win the cash Traitors, saying: “We’re proud of Jonny. We’ll get behind him. Through taking part in this programme, he’s keeping in people’s minds that there are hundreds of injured men who came back from Northern Ireland, Afghanistan.”
For Jonny, it’s also a chance for him to be promote awareness.
“Obviously I’ve had dark days,” he said on the show. “But I’ve just learned to see things from a completely different perspective. It’s been so nice for people not to realise. I don’t want people to see a disability, I want them to see me as me. It’s been so nice just to be me.”
- For more information on Blesma, go to Blesma.org
- The Traitors continues on BBC1 tonight at 9pm.