The TV adventurer on inspiring young soldiers, his new Netflix series, and how everyone – including comedian Brand – deserves support. Copy link. twitter. facebook. whatsapp. email. Bear Grylls knows first-hand what it feels like when a soldier’s life takes a wrong turn in the service of their country. When, at 21, he was in Zambia in 1997 with E Squadron 21 SAS, his parachute failed to open as he jumped out of a plane at 16,000 ft. He broke his back in three places.
“It was a miracle I wasn’t paralysed. At the rehabilitation centre at Headley Court, I couldn’t even reach a bathroom, let alone do my soldiering job again. You start inch by inch, but it is a long, stumbling road to recovery. They were dark days and months.”.
That experience is part of the reason he’s a supporter of the Army Benevolent Fund, one of four charities Telegraph readers are supporting in our Christmas Appeal. “ABF is the unsung hero of the military charities. It is celebrating its 80th anniversary and does so much more than people think – supporting 75,000 soldiers, ex-soldiers and their families in 51 countries [in 2024] alone.”.
A big part of what it does, he says, is around PTSD and mental health. “Our awareness of this is greater, but there seems to be more. ABF is there when people need help. It is that thing that you are part of a family for life.”. For Grylls, happily, what could have been a devastating life event, with his accident making a return to front-line service impossible, proved to be only a temporary setback. At 23 – “fired up by the belief that God had given me a second chance” – he climbed Everest, one of the youngest men ever to reach the summit at the time.
