Mark Ormrod (Royal Marine, Triple Amputee and Athlete) - Episode 160

Behind The Shield

Royal Marines Commando Mark Ormrod lost both legs and an arm after kneeling on an IED on Christmas Eve, 2007. Mark defied all odds, becoming an elite athlete and Invictus Games multiple gold medalist.

We discuss the importance of training, trauma medicine, physical and mental resilience and so much more.

In the early hours of Christmas Eve 2007, Royal Marines Commando Mark Ormrod was out on a routine foot patrol in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan when he stepped on and triggered an Improvised Explosive Device. Thanks to the swift action of the men around him and the intervention of the Medical Emergency Response Team he was airlifted via helicopter to an emergency field hospital in a desperate attempt to try and save his life. An innovative and dangerous procedure carried out onboard a Chinook helicopter en route to the hospital did save his life. He woke up three days later in the UK in Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham: Both legs amputated above the knee and his right arm amputated above the elbow. He was the UK’s first triple amputee to survive the Afghanistan conflict.

During his recovery the doctors told him that he’d never walk again and that he should prepare himself for the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Now it would have been understandable for Mark to bitterly withdraw in a state of anger and depression and to resign himself to live life on the sidelines. It would have been easy for him to cash in his disability pension and whittle away the days, forever regretting the decision to join the Marines and to deploy to Afghanistan, but he didn’t. To the contrary he used his set back as a springboard for growth and reinvention.

Today, Mark Ormrod is an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker, a peak performance coach, and the author of the award winning auto-biography Man Down. He is a source of daily inspiration for the thousands of people who follow him on Social Media. He has three children, a beautiful wife and an insatiable lust for life. He is a relentless charitable fund-raiser and a daredevil who has performed stunts that many able bodied athletes would find daunting. He has not used a wheel chair since June 9th 2009 and he jokes about the fact that children call him Iron-Man because of his high-tech prosthetics legs. As well as a peak performance coach he is a mentor and a role model to other amputees and an ambassador for the Royal Marines Association. His sense of humour is only equalled by his sense of wonder, love for learning and love for life.

Mark Ormrod turned his personal tragedy into an on going story of personal success and he is now committed to helping others who may have suffered setbacks or feel they are not yet achieving their maximum potential to take charge of their lives, unleash their personal power and live a life with#NoLimits