AN inspirational soldier who battled back from the brink after losing both legs in an Afghanistan bomb blast has been selected for the Invictus Games.

Lance Corporal Corie Mapp, from Redhouse, is one of six Wiltshire athletes to be selected for the UK Invictus Games team, with the prestigious event due to be held in Toronto this September.

Corie, 38, who also appeared at the 2014 and 2016 Invictus Games will compete in sitting volleyball and athletics (100 metres, 200 metres and 4x100 metres relay).

The Invictus Games, created by Prince Harry, is an international Paralympic-style event in which wounded, sick or injured armed services personnel and veterans take part in sports such as wheelchair basketball.

Corie lost both legs below the knee in an IED bomb blast in 2010, and sustained other injuries including a broken jaw, severed lip and punctured lung.

While recovering the superman soldier discovered the healing power of sport and has become a GB athlete in para-bobsleigh and sitting volleyball.

Corie said he was over the moon to be selected for the games.

“I was delighted because I didn’t know if I would make it. It is a real honour to be selected again," he said.

“Going there, meeting people from all around the world is the best thing. We are different but our stories are similar.

“We have been injured, discovered sports and it has changed our lives.

“It feels like our lives are on parallel tracks and when the competition comes around we cross junctions.

“The amazing thing about the games is the power to help each other, we are opposing teams, we’re competing against each other but we still unite and help one another

In 2013 charity Help For Heroes enabled Corie to compete for the UK in America’s Warrior Games where he participated in the sitting volleyball team and played alongside Prince Harry.

He said: “I love sport because you can switch off, I never get nervous when I am playing, I always feel confident.

“I hope I can inspire people from all walks of life, whether military or otherwise, and continue to serve my country in the best way possible by being a good sportsman and a role model for others to follow.”

Caring Corie juggles his sporting responsibilities with fatherhood to his three children and volunteering at the Royal British Legion’s pop-in centre in Regent Street.

Joanne Hursey, from Royal Wootton Bassett, will also join Corie in Toronto where she will compete in golf, athletics (shot put and discus), swimming and sitting volleyball.

Jo has been serving with the Army since 1995. She sustained an injury to her left leg which left her with no anterior cruciate ligament in her knee.

Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, she also suffers with depression, anxiety, osteoarthritis and a hearing impairment.