THE last time Private Craig Winspear’s mates saw him, he was unconscious and close to death, having fallen victim to a Taliban bomb in Afghanistan.

The 29-year-old lost both his legs after triggering the blast as he searched for improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan last December – just eight days before Christmas.

But yesterday he lined up on parade in Oxford alongside those friends and colleagues from 23 Pioneer Regiment, part of the Royal Logistic Corps, to receive his Afghanistan Medal.

The dad-of-one said: “I was a bit nervous but it was so good to have all the lads behind me.

“Some of them only got back 24 hours ago, so it’s the first time I’ve seen them. It was great. I know my family were very proud.”

Pte Winspear was following a wire from a Taliban bomb when his foot slipped and he stepped on a second hidden IED.

From that point the 29-year-old’s memory is blank until he woke up at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Birmingham, on Christmas Eve.

He now knows that a colleague, Lance Corporal Jamie Gorza, tied both his legs with tourniquets to stop blood loss, and that within 30 minutes he had been flown by an air evacuation helicopter to the hospital at Camp Bastion, where both his legs were amputated.

He was then flown back to the UK and transferred to the dedicated military ward at the Birmingham hospital.

Pte Winspear, based at St David’s Barracks, in Ambrosden, near Bicester, said: “One of my friends took me off the back of the helicopter and didn’t realise it was me until he saw a tattoo and looked at my dogtags. He stayed with me throughout my surgery.”

Pte Winspear’s father Paul, from Hartlepool, was the first to hear what had happened and then had to break it to his son’s partner Hayley Willson, 31, who was at the couple’s home in Marsh Gibbon, near Bicester.

They kept a vigil at his hospital bedside for seven days while Pte Winspear was in an induced coma.

When he opened his eyes his first words were “Merry Christmas” and “Where are my presents?”, much to their relief.

He stayed in hospital until February 14 when he was transferred to Headley Court, in Surrey, where he will undergo about two years of rehabilitation and learn to walk on prosthetic legs.

Since the incident the couple, who met a year ago on the dance floor of a Bicester pub, have become inseparable.

Miss Willson has resigned from her job as a project manager so she can help with Craig’s recovery.

Fighting back the tears at yesterday’s parade, she told the Oxford Mail: “He’s inspirational really, he has just got on with it. He woke up with a positive attitude.

“Everyone has stuck together and Craig has been so positive it has been quite easy.

“We don’t see this as a negative, we’re quite positive about the future – it will be what it will be.”

Pte Winspear, who has a nine-year-old daughter Shauna-Leigh from a previous relationship, said: “I have lost my legs, but I’m still here at the end of the day.

“I’m not complaining, I’m still alive and there are people worse off in the world.”

Pte Tom Purcell was with Pte Winspear on the day of the explosion and said the regiment had found it difficult to cope with.

He said: “For me, it was hard. This was the first time I’ve seen him since that day and he looks great.”