Stokesley correspondent Jan Hunter was inspired by a serviceman's funeral to find out more about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

ON a sunny day in March, when the daffodils were slowly opening as a sign of hope for better days to come, I attended the funeral of a 31-year-old man, who had served in Afghanistan. He was a former pupil of mine, one of the special ones you remember, and the same age as my son.

Regimental colleagues from the RAF were on duty around his coffin, and I stood in a chapel, which was too small to hold all the people who wanted to be there.

His family had requested that instead of sending flowers, people should split their donations between two charities, PTSD Resolution and Veterans at Ease. I had never heard of either, but a leaflet on our pew explained that they help veterans from our armed forces who struggle to reintegrate into civilian life because of the trauma they suffered during their active service.

The service affected me deeply, and I wanted to do more. I contacted PTSD Resolution which put me in touch with a corporal from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, Ian Young, whom it had helped.

Ian is from the North-East, and in an honest and frank way he told me how he had served in Northern Ireland, where he had witnessed the death of a young female police officer in a bomb blast. Then he had moved on to Bosnia and Kosovo, where he came across more terrible human suffering – mass graves and families torn apart.

He left the army in 2000 but never escaped from what he had seen. He suffered guilt about the policewoman, torturing himself that if he done things differently, she would still be alive.

He suffered flashbacks, terrible anger and depression and turned to alcohol for solace. His marriage broke up and he became frightened for his own safety – he felt he had nothing left to lose, and nowhere to go.

Then someone told him about the work of the charity Resolution and, as his last hope, in 2014, he called them.

“They got me in therapy straight away,” he said. “From session one there was a great change. I had kept things bottled up inside me for 20 years and they gave me skills and techniques to help me to deal with what I was going through. They empowered me, and I kept my job and my sanity.

“It was too late to save my marriage, but not too late to save myself.”

Ian was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which is quite a recent diagnosis, but not a new concept in the long history of war.

Clinical psychologists say that it is the body’s natural response to distressing events, and it is treatable if caught early.

Not all soldiers react to it, but since 2006, it is believed that between ten and twenty per cent of those who have returned from combat zones have suffered, or will suffer, from PTSD in some form.

The charity Resolution knows how it can wreck the lives of the sufferers and their families and friends. It can cause flashbacks, nightmares, anger, depression, often leading to violence, alcohol and substance abuse, family breakdown, prison and even suicide.

Patrick Rea from the charity said: “Resolution’s aim is to help ex-service men and women who have mental health problems through service in the armed forces. It involves one to one therapy sessions on an out-patient basis.

“The goal is to relieve trauma symptoms and help the client to manage with no continuing need for therapy.

“The environment is calm and safe and the recounting of the traumatic episodes is kept to a minimum.

“For clients who engage with the therapeutic process and meet their appointments the, outcome is very good. All our therapists are trained in Human Givens Therapy which is a successful therapy for dealing with mental distress.”

Ian was in no doubt. “These people saved my life,” he told me.

“Two years later, I am a completely different man.

“I still have my ups and downs but I can deal with them through the skills they taught me.”

He now is committed to helping the people who helped him.

“I know how much they need money to help people so I am trying to raise as much as I can for them,” he said. “I have just run the Manchester Marathon, in August I am doing a 100 mile cycle ride and in September, the Great North Run.”

We said our goodbyes and our phone call came to an end. I was left with the thought of how our servicemen and women risk life and limb in war-torn countries, displaying great courage and witnessing immense horror. Some of them struggle to readjust to civilian life, and we owe it to them to help.

Donations to Ian for Resolution can be made through justgiving.com/Ian-Young43/ . To donate to the Resolution charity, go to the secure website on ptsdresolution.org or telephone 0300 302 0551 or email contact@ptsdresolution.org.

Veterans at Ease is a local PTSD charity based in Jarrow, Durham and Newton Aycliffe. It has recently lost its Lottery funding. To find out more about its work, or to donate, go to veteransatease.org.