One of Britain's most severely-injured soldiers tells of struggle to walk again

Some stories are hard to listen to but give an incredible insight into a person's ability to make the most of an appalling situation.

We have been meeting veterans of the war in Afghanistan who have suffered physical and mental injuries that changed their lives forever, as part of our series Battle Goes On.

Infantry Platoon Sergeant Rick Clement gives a remarkably open account of waking up in hospital to be told he has lost his legs and being informed he would never be able to have children.

His battlefield injuries ended his 15 year army career and led to the break up of his marriage.

Rick, who now lives in Blackpool, was a month into his first tour of Afghanistan when he stepped on a Improvised Explosive Device (IED) while out on routine foot patrol in May 2010 in Helmand Province.

He also severely damaged an arm and suffered internal injuries.

Through work with his charity, A Soldier's Journey, and the independence he has achieved through treatment and rehabilitation, Rick has regained his own self esteem but as he tells ITV News, it has been a difficult journey.

There was no technology to allow him to learn to walk until this year due to the severity of his injuries.

Now he is learning to walk again thanks to advances in prosthetic limbs and has set himself a new target:

Rick is one of 275 amputees from the Afghanistan conflict alone.

The cost of lifetime care for them will cost a quarter of a billion pounds for the UK, according to an Imperial College report last month.

In an Freedom of Information response to the Mirror in July this year, the Ministry of Defence said 14,000 troops in the UK currently are not fit to be deployed due to injury from all conflicts. There are 140,000 trained British troops in total.

Watch Paul Davies' full report below and read more from our Battle Goes On series.