A Birkenshaw soldier badly injured in an explosion in Afghanistan which killed his friend is back fighting fit and hoping to join his fellow squaddies on a training expedition to Kenya.

Private Matthew Light, son of Kirklees Council Tory leader Councillor Robert Light, has regained most of the hearing he lost in the blast and is having physio to mend the nerve loss in his left leg.

The 20-year-old, who was 19 at the time, had been leading a foot patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj district with Afghan National Security Forces when he suffered shrapnel wounds.

His friend Private John King, 19, who was walking next to him, was killed by the improvised explosive device, which went off as the patrol came under fire from insurgents around the village of Llara Kalay.

In the aftermath surgeons at Camp Bastion managed to save Pte Light’s legs, but he needed a number of operations to clear and clean out shrapnel and was left deaf in one ear.

Pte Light was eventually flown to Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he was reunited with his relieved parents and sisters.

He spent four months on sick leave at home and says despite “fantastic care and support” from Army medics and phsyios, it was his family who got him back on his feet so quickly.

“I’d say it was 95 per cent my family who helped me recover so quickly. I’ve surprised myself at getting better so fast, but I just knuckled down with mum and dad and my sisters help to getting fit again and it’s paid off.”

Pte Light, who has already been back with his regiment in Munster, Germany, is currently at home on leave before returning to the battalion soon.

“I’m working hard with the physios in Germany and I’m hoping I’ll be fit enough to go on a training exercise in Kenya next year. It’s something to aim for. I’m in the Army long-term, it’s what I want to be doing”

Pte Light had been half-way through a six-month tour of Afghanistan with the 1st Battalion Yorkshire Regiment when he was caught up in the blast.

Being in the Army had been a childhood ambition for the former Batley Air Cadets member, who joined the forces aged 16 after leaving Dixons City Academy in Bradford and going to Harrogate Army College. He was first posted to Munster, Germany, two years ago.