Prince Harry has opened up about his experiences on the frontline of Afghanistan during his time in the army, and encouraged others to open up about their own difficult experiences.
Speaking to the London Ambulance Service, the 32-year-old spoke emotionally about helping to evacuate injured men and women. "You land and then hand them over and then are radioed to do something else," he said. "You never find out how that guy or girl recovered, whether they did recover or they didn't. I understand what you go through and thank God you have got each other." The Prince, who undertook two tours during his time in the military, was visiting to service headquarters to launch the annual awareness day Time to Talk Day, and several members of staff shared their own stories with the fifth-in-line to the throne.
© Photo: Getty ImagesPrince Harry spoke about his experiences in Afghanistan
Emergency medical dispatcher Alexandra Turp opened up about taking a call where a member of the public wasn't breathing. She said: "It wasn't the worst call I have had to deal with by any stretch of the imagination but I found it extremely difficult. It was a hugely chaotic situation with five people all shouting at me down the phone to send help. I was being passed from person to person and had no idea even where they were, it was very frustrating. It took me a while to even establish the patient wasn't breathing, it was really, really difficult situation. I felt so helpless for the patient and no-one was actually helping them."
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She admitted that the incident left her a "mess" after she found out that the patient had sadly passed away, and how speaking about it with LINC worker Katie Shrimpton, who volunteers to listen and support her peers, had helped her. "I was a real mess," she said. "I knew instantly that I couldn't be on duty - I was a wreck - and someone covered for me. I sat down with Katie and we spoke for an hour and a half. I walked out feeling like a weight had been listed off my shoulders. In my head this patient had gone to hospital and got his treatment. It was such a shock to find out he had died." Prince Harry, who currently working to get rid of the stigma of mental illness along with Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge with their Heads Together campaign, said: "It shows the importance of talking. For you guys every day is different, you never know what you are going to get."
