Former paratrooper who broke his back in mid-air reveals the brutal reality of jumping into combat

Unlike civilian parachuting, Mr Stratta explained military jumps take place at dangerously low altitudes, often at night, with dozens of soldiers sharing the same airspace while carrying up to £100,000 worth of equipment.

Speaking to Lee Anderson, Mr Stratta said: "It’s quite a long story. I was at university and joined the Officer Training Corps. There were two Para blokes there, and I had no real plans to join the Army at all.

"But they were the epitome of what the Paras are about. I thought 'I’ll go down and see what they’re all about.' And honestly they do what they say on the tin. They’re hard-charging.

"If you’re going to jump out of that aircraft door, you want people beside you who’ve got bravery and backbone. I jumped into Ukraine and got tangled with another paratrooper. He was panicking, saying, 'What do I do? What do I do?'

"I told him, 'Share the ground', because we were going to hit it. We came down under one parachute. I broke my back, fractures to T8 and T9 , but I carried on.

"I was in pain, absolutely bombed up on painkillers for about two weeks before they got me home."

Lee said: ""Incredible. Now tell us about your trip to Africa, you and your wife."

Mr Strutter replied: "I was always going to stay on after leaving the Army. I got an MBA and arranged my final appointment in South Africa for a year, helping restructure the South African Armed Forces post-Mandela.

"My wife Kathryn was a medical student and then went into pharmaceutical research. For years we were ships passing in the night.

"One day I said, half-jokingly, 'Wouldn’t it be fun to travel from London to Cape Town?' Kathryn said, 'We’re doing it.'

He responded: "Safety is relative. You manage risk. But things do happen.

"While I was in South Africa, we found a vehicle and kitted it out and suddenly it became real. It became our shared dream."

Lee, shocked, asked: "Did you feel safe?"

He responded: "Safety is relative. You manage risk. But things do happen.

"We rolled our first Land Rover on the N7 outside Cape Town. Kathryn was driving and came round a blind bend, an articulated lorry being overtaken illegally.

"She had three choices: hit the lorry, hit the pickup, or swerve into the rock face. She chose the rock face.

"She broke her collarbone. I wanted to stop the trip entirely. But we were told to see a specialist, the shoulder surgeon for the Springboks. He treated her with bone grafts and dissolvable tape and said she’d be back on the road in six weeks.

"That was all she needed to hear.

"We got another vehicle and carried on. The mission mattered."

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