When Sergeant Rick Clement got married a year after suffering devastating injuries in Afghanistan, it seemed an uplifting denouement to a story that once seemed destined to end tragically.
The soldier lost both legs when he stepped on a bomb and 'died twice' on the flight home. When he came round he was told he would never be able to have children or a sex life.
But his fiancee, Leanne Isaacs, went ahead with the wedding, insisting he was still her 'perfect man'. But now the painful realities of their life together have brought their marriage to a sad end.
As newlyweds: Rick Clement from Blackpool who when stepped on an IED in Afghanistan with his wife shortly after they married in 2011
In a deeply moving interview, 33-year-old Rick revealed that Leanne has left him after less than two years. He blames his injuries, which doctors said were among the worse they had seen.
Blast victim: Rick Clement lost both legs when he stepped on a bomb
'Neither of us could take any more,' he said. 'We had gone from being a very happy, active couple, dreaming of a long future together to a relationship more like being brother and sister. We talked it through so many times and we took it very badly. There were a lot of tears.
'I wanted to make her happy and at my lowest moments I would say to myself, “Christ, I am not a man any more.” A guy can't feel much worse than that.'
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The couple had foreseen difficult times ahead but hoped their love would transcend them.
'We could never make up for what was missing,' said Rick. 'Watching Leanne mourn for me and for not having the man I'd been before the blast and not being able to fulfil her, that became too much to take.
'Obviously I've lost my legs as well as my testicles but there is simply no comparison in how these injuries affected my life with Leanne.'
Rick and Leanne, 31, met on Facebook in 2008. He was in the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment and a keen footballer. They seemed perfectly matched and Rick was more than happy to spend time with her children from a previous relationship; a daughter Erin and son Kyle.
By 2010, when Rick was deployed to Afghanistan, he and Leanne were planning to have their own children. 'I was going to pop the question when I came home on leave. Everything was perfect. But on May 27, 2010, I was leading a foot patrol in Helmand province when I stepped on a mine.
Casualty: A wounded British soldier is carried to an ambulance by a U.S. medical team in Helmand Province
Fateful day: Rick was pictured posing with the flag of St George while serving with The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment in Afghanistan, on the day he was hit by the bomb
'My mates carried me on to a Chinook helicopter and they say that on the flight back to our base, while I was lying on a stretcher, I was groping at my crotch, reaching down there and trying to feel something, just to assure myself.
TOLL OF BRITISH TROOP DEATHS AND AMPUTATIONS
British troop deaths during the conflict in Afghanistan currently stands at 441.
The number of fatalities is now much higher than Iraq and even the Falklands conflict.
Deadliest years for British troops in Afghanistan were 2009 and 2010 . But last year, with the arrival of U.S. troops to Helmand, casualties fell.
Figures released by the the Ministry of Defence reveal that amputations on British troops serving in Afghanistan between April 2011 and March 2012 was 46
Eighteen of the cases were significant multiple amputees.
The number is down from 2010/11, when 75 service personnel suffered amputations.
According to the latest data, the figure is still falling, with 24 troops suffering amputations in 2012.
'A soldier said I'd lost my legs but he didn't mention my testicles; it is like a taboo in the Army that you don't talk about that. The medics put me to sleep at Camp Bastion.
'I went into a coma and woke up in hospital in Birmingham three weeks later where I saw Leanne by my bedside. From the moment I came around she started looking after me, always at my side.
'Naturally I worried about losing her because of my injuries, but we got engaged and I think we thought we'd get by, just because we loved each other.
'Our wedding day was like a perfect dream, a celebration of being alive, because the doctors said I should have been dead.'
Before 100 friends, relatives and soldiers from Rick's regiment, they got married on June 4, 2011, at The Great Hall at Mains, a 16th Century house at Little Singleton, Lancashire. The following day they went on honeymoon: three nights in New York followed by a seven-night cruise off Bermuda. Despite his appalling injuries, Rick demonstrated incredible determination and began to regain his independence, mastering a wheelchair and learning to drive again.
Rick said the time he spent setting up his charity, A Soldier's Journey, also put pressure on his relationship with Leanne.
On patrol: A British soldier from A Company, 2 Mercian in the Babaji village in Helmand
Combat: British soldiers and Afghan National Army soldiers in Helmand province
A Soldier's Journey has raised £36,480 so far and last year Rick carried the Olympic torch through Blackpool. He said: 'For the first year after I got back from Afghanistan I spent nine months in hospital having operation after operation.
'Leanne gave up her job as a professional carer to care for me and Erin and Kyle would stay in hospital with me. That was my life. We were like a family and I needed Leanne to do everything for me. I couldn't even go to the toilet by myself.
'Yet at the same time we were happy and the relationship part was easy. But then I got in my chair and I could cope with being by myself. This gave Leanne time to think about me and her, and what had changed.
'I wasn't useless any more and I didn't need her as my carer. Sometimes I blame myself for our relationship going wrong. Maybe I took on too much too soon and became more independent. Everything was simpler when I was helpless.
'Then last year we realised we'd grown apart. We talked about how things were and it was very tearful. I hated seeing Leanne so sad.
'We knew we weren't going to work things out with counselling; the basic problem wasn't going to change and that couldn't be worked out. Looking to the future, a hard aspect to this is that as much as I want Leanne to find happiness, I don't want it in my face that she's meeting other guys.
'I have had to put a bit of space between us.'
Leanne has moved out but Rick continues to see her children and pictures of Erin and Kyle adorn the walls of the former marital home. The soldier, who is soon to be invalided out of the Army, also looks after the couple's pet dogs.
Despite his suffering, Rick received just £9,075 from the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme for his genitalia and £48,875 for his infertility. 'If you told any guy in a pub he could have £9,025 for losing his genitals, I don't think anyone would say yes,' he said. 'But I am glad to get a pension from the Army and for the support I've received from my regiment.
'I am looking positively to the future and, if the right woman comes along, I would like to have a relationship.'
He would also like the Ministry of Defence to introduce a system allowing soldiers to provide sperm samples before going to war zones so they are still able to have children if the worst happens.
He said: 'Sadly I will never have my own children. I don't want other soldiers to suffer like me.'