A NEWPORT soldier left seriously injured after he was caught in a suicide bomb attack in Iraq claims the Ministry of Defence "abandoned" him. Royal Welch Fusilier Neil Spencer, 25, was given a medical discharge after a traumatic 20 months following the attack.

We reported in April 2004 how Mr Spencer was lucky to be alive after a car bomb exploded just yards from him in a Basra street, killing 50 people. He suffered serious nerve damage to an arm and was transferred home for treatment in April 2004.

Mr Spencer, of Rugby Road, said he is disgusted with the way the MoD treated him after the incident.

Mr Saunders, opted to work in the Newport Army Career's office while he was sick.

But he said: "It made me feel worse with my depression as all I wanted to do was be an army man and not an office worker."

He has now been discharged from the army, receiving £3,000, and a £20 a week pension.

"I was sent home and left to wait for an operation date," he said. He said no news came for five months.

"While I was waiting for my operation I received no counselling or psychological help for my trauma out in Iraq."

The former Lliswerry Comprehensive School pupil said he was called back to his HQ at Aldershot several times while waiting for his operation. "I was told I had to return to camp.

"Having the use of only one arm, I would arrive and be told to go home on sick.

"The stress it caused was terrible. One minute I thought I was being called back being told I would become AWOL, and the next they were turning me around to face a long journey home."

Mr Spencer says he was put on Y list - an army personnel centre responsible for injured soldiers.

"While on the Y list I was told I wouldn't be allowed back to duty until they gave the go-ahead, but still I was getting calls saying I had to be back on duty," he said.

The soldier claims he became depressed and his arm still needed treatment.

He says he found out he had been given an appointment in October but missed it because the army didn't inform him. His next appointment is this month, when he will find out if he has to lose the last two fingers on his left hand.

He said: "I'm not a doctor but I feel that if I received physiotherapy within a month of having the injury maybe I wouldn't have to lose my fingers." He is also critical of the way the MoD told his family of the incident.

"When the attack happened my family was told the news by phone. The MoD should have sent someone from the local barracks to break the news."

Mr Spencer says his late mother, Tina, who was suffering from breast cancer at the time, was told "your son has been involved in an attack, we don't know his condition."

He said: "My whole family was terrified, my poor mum had enough to deal with, to be told what happened over the phone was disgusting." Mr Spencer received treatment three days later at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham.

He said: "My wound had been left open and the bandage got entangled in the shrapnel left in my arm."

Mr Spencer had the bandage surgically removed. High doses of morphine were used to ease the pain.

He said doctors could not give him further treatment at that time because of the infection.

"To add insult to injury, when I received my leaver's pack, my army record for the past four years, it said I had blue hair, got my eye colour wrong, height wrong and blood type wrong.

"All my life all I wanted to do was fight for my Queen and country. I just wanted to be an infantryman. They have no respect for me or my family and have ruined my career."

He said if it wasn't for the support of his dad, John, mum Tina - who passed away in October - and wife Carla, he wouldn't have made it through his ordeal.