Andy Grant is not your typical 20-something.
Aged 12, he faced life without his mum as she passed away after battling with Leukemia. Now aged 24, he is an Iraq and Afghanistan War Veteran, a former Royal Marine Commando of 6 and a half years, an amputee, father, partner and Motivational Speaker.
While out serving with 45 Commando, Royal Marines on Herrick 9 in Helmand Provence, , he was critically injured when a trip wire attached to 2 IEDs was triggered by the lead man. Both IEDs were detonated.
After receiving life saving treatment on the ground by his fellow Royal Marines, he was airlifted to Camp Bastion.
He suffered 27 separate injuries and woke up 2 weeks later from a coma, in Birmingham, at the then Selly Oak Hospital. He stayed in hospital for a further 3 months receiving treatment. He was only 20 years old.
For the next 18 months he spent all his time in and out of the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, also known as Headley Court in Surrey, were he began to adjust to life with his injuries.
With wounds to his right leg not healing as it was hoped, he was faced with a life changing and extremely agonising decision. Whether to have his leg amputated. After a few hard months and time spent speaking with surgeons and his family, he had made his decision.
On the 25th of November 2010, aged only 22, he had his right leg amputated, just below the knee.
5 days in hospital and armed with a packet of paracetomol, he was discharged from hospital and headed back home to Liverpool, to be with his family, where he lives with his partner Leonie, and children, Payton and Brooke.
As one door closes, another opens. He has turned, what some may say, is a negative into a positive and now spends his time traveling around the country talking about his experiences, a life beyond injury and sharing how he continues to overcome adversity.
Andy recently competed in the Invictus Games coming away with two Gold Medals in 400m and 1,500m Men's Ambulant IT1.
Motivation
Overcoming Adversity
Bravery
Inspiration
"The rationale behind inviting Andy in was to show the lads that they will not get to the top unless they learn to cope successfully with setbacks along the way, as they are unavoidable.
Such resilience is what we want to develop in the lads to aid their psychological development. It was superb to have Andy in and the lads were clearly inspired by his visit."
Liverpool Football Club"I have been lucky enough to see Andy present a few times now and each time he engages his audience, young or old, with his personal story of life beyond injury. He doesn't shy away from talking about the difficulties he has faced, and continues to face, but his positive outlook and (slightly dodgy!) sense of humour make it impossible not to be uplifted and inspired. He recently spoke at a regional meeting for the North West H4H volunteers and I know they benefited hugely from hearing his story and seeing how Help for Heroes has made a difference to both him and his family. A truly great speaker."
Help for Heroes"Andy kindly attended our charity event to provide an after dinner speech that was simply inspiring. The speech itself was expertly delivered and included such a powerful message, it was extremely positive, and even included his own unique humour which epitomises the unique spirit Andy displayed at the time and is clearly displaying now.
His story, describing his own journey since he was injured, was truly humbling. It was told with such humility that each and every person in the room could not help but be moved.
Andy comes highly recommended to any organisation if you simply wish to be inspired.
A remarkable story told by a remarkable young man."
"On behalf of the faculty and delegates, I would like to thank Andy for attending the twelfth Cardiff Masterclass and providing us with an insight into your experiences. To be given such a clear, fearless and informative account of the patient's perspective was fascinating to all present. Being able to ask questions of people with first hand knowledge and be given informed, comprehensive answers added enormously to the impact of the presentation. The feedback from the day has suggested that this was one of the most interesting sessions in the long history of the Masterclass! As surgeons, this opportunity was invaluable to us and we are grateful for the time and effort you put in to your visit."
Cardiff GI MasterclassThe feedback was great from my year 11 today! They were telling me that he was really funny and they recalled lots of information about his story which was great! They told me that I had missed out because I wasn't in assembly.
Jack in C1 loved it as he wants to be in the marines. He told me that he was the first to ask questions and had his answers written all up his arm!!
A big thumbs up from the students, it seems!
Without prompting, my year 10 and 11 students had the floor this morning discussing the speaker. They were really positive about him and explained to the rest of the class how interesting he was. Unfortunately, their quotes were not the most useful as he was described as "sick" and "proper cute".
I actually spoke to a number of pupils about the speaker yesterday and they all commented very positively about him and Dylan Beckwith was very impressed by him! A huge success in my opinion!
I asked some of my family this morning and they all made positive comments some included
-Jordan Tunney - Brave choosing to have his leg amputated
-Alex Jones - Inspiring
-Harriett Pattinson - well good (with a big smile)
-(Not in my family but told me) - Connor Charlesworth - Inspirational
Hope this help. I was lucky enough to sit in with year 11 and thought it was one of the best motivational speakers I have seen, all the students were interested
I went into my old family A6 this morning, the Year 11 girls were telling me all about it and how I missed out. They really enjoyed the talk and gave them lots to think about.
Gutted I missed it now.
Two girls in my history class were talking about him - Karli said "I felt really sorry for him" and the other girl said "He doesn't want your pity, he wants you to be inspired!"
Thought that showed everything he said had an impact- even though he was upstaged by Matthew fainting.
"He was great. Even though it was a bad experience for him, he was positive about it and made us laugh (especially with his tattoo!)"
Tyler Browne, Year 11
Quote from a Yr11 boy
"Just an inspiration isn't he!"
I don't know about the kids but I loved it. I sat at the back of the hall and cried when he talked about his mum, then I cried at the end when he explained how much he'd achieved after having his leg amputated. No one saw me. The Year 10 students were mesmerised throughout and my 10r3 group thought he was brilliant. I also loved his equation:
W = A + R (Winning in life relies on your aspirations and ambition and how you react to situations. Even if a situation is terrible you can still react by taking a positive from it. This also sums up the kids attitude in The Excellence Centre perfectly
'It was amazing to see someone come out of something so bad and make it positive.'
'He was a real inspiration and shows that with determination and the right mind set you can achieve and overcome anything.'
'I thought it was very interesting to listen to his story. I also thought it was quite inspirational. I thought the fact that he chose to have his leg amputated was inspirational.'
'I thought he was an amazing man to have carried on through everything that has happened to him and to still have enough courage to carry on. I respect him so much as a human being and it has made me realise that when times are tough you can still carry on. You just need to find the will power within you.'
I thought he was good, he was motivational, he made me think that when everything gets hard you shouldn't give up."
"Never giving up, is important, he didn't give up even though his mum died."
"It was good, because he talked about how never giving up is important"
"I could see how this relates to me because, I shouldn't let things that happen stop doing what I want to do..."
Student/Staff FeedbackAndy was brilliant - the whole group were moved and impressed by his amazing story. Please thank him so much for his time and efforts in getting to Skipton for us.
Sara Fergusson, SystagenixAndy is a truly inspirational character and gave a very personal, interesting and uplifting presentation to our clients.
A down to earth man who has been through so much but still has a thirst for life and its challenges, not allowing his injuries from war hold him back.
He tells his story with great composure and humour and I would thoroughly recommend him to speak at any corporate event.
James Crossley, Jupiter Asset Management
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