Nulli-Secundus💂

A Welsh Guard survived the bombing of his ship, then sought out one of the pilots who attacked it. On 8 June 1982, during the Falklands War, 20-year-old Welsh Guard Simon Weston was aboard the British ship Sir Galahad in the Falkland Islands when Argentine aircraft bombed it and set it ablaze. Forty-eight men aboard the ship died, and many of them were Weston’s friends. Weston survived with severe burns to his face and body, and his mother did not recognise him when she saw him after the attack. The first 18 months of his recovery were the hardest, with operations and skin grafts. His injuries ended his Army career, and the skin that had been repaired was too fragile for him to play rugby again. After he got home, he struggled with post-traumatic stress, felt he had too little help with it and wondered whether he would ever have a family of his own. His family and friends stood by him, and they told him plainly when they could see he was struggling. In time, he grew more comfortable with the person he had become. Years after the war, Weston asked to meet one of the Argentine pilots who had taken part in the attack. He said he wanted to look the man in the eye, and he was clear that he was going for himself. The two men went on to become friends. Weston eventually became an ambassador for the Scar Free Foundation, which funds research into healing and scarring. He speaks about what it is like to have people stare and how little control someone with visible scars can have over when strangers bring them up. When Weston talks to a young person learning to live with scars, he can speak about something he once had to learn for himself.