"I'm a Royal Navy veteran who witnessed nightmares and had my leg amputated - now I support others like me"

Janet Riddell, from Fareham, underwent a decade of chronic pain before the decision was made for surgery. The helicopter she was flying in as shot down while on deployment.

Overcome with emotion and wanting to lend a hand to those in a similar situation, she’s now part of a 2,000-nautical-mile expedition around the UK with the veteran sailing charity Turn to Starboard, in partnership with the Invictus Games Birmingham 2027.

“I want everyone to just experience the camaraderie and feel like they're back in the military again knowing that there are other people there that they can talk to and turn to, giving them purpose and a positive focus,” she said. “For me, charities like Turn to Starboard have now become my new family."

“They just killed them”

Janet joined the Royal Navy at the age of 22 and proceeded to have a career spanning 18 and a half years. Beginning at HMS Raleigh on January 15, 1990, she initially joined as a writer before quickly advancing to Leading Hand.

Her service included multiple deployments to the Falkland Islands, Sierra Leone, and Hong Kong during the 1999 conflict. She also worked with admirals and handled officer promotion reports on various shore-based assignments. Her experiences weren’t all positive, with an incident during a deployment to Sierra Leone haunting her to this day.

She said: “One day when we were patrolling the coast off Sierra Leone, a little boat came up to us one day saying, ‘Capitan, please help us’. There were really traumatised women, children, and men all crammed into this dinghy. But we just couldn't have them on board a warship. So, you just feel like it's a sense of guilt there. I still struggle with that guilt.

“In the end we had to hand them over to the ECOMOG forces. The next day, parts of them were floating past the ship and being eaten by sharks. So, they just killed them."

Janet still suffers from nightmares and survivor's guilt from the experience. She believes this has been more impactful on her than the helicopter crash in Iraq. In October 2006, the Royal Navy veteran was deployed to Baghdad where she worked as the chief clerk a British Army general on Camp Victory - primarily housing US forces.

Her role included handling flights and money changing, requiring weekly trips to the British camp in the international zone via Black Hawk helicopters. While travelling on one of these flights in December 2006, her helicopter was shot down by small arms fire.

“A bit drastic”

She said: “We went down with a thud. I went flying forward and landed on my knee that I’d already damaged from football. The second helicopter behind us landed, because we always fly in twos. My knee was clicking in and out.

“My kneecap was popping but I managed to hobble out of the helicopter and safely taken back to Camp Victory. Back at the camp it hurt, but I didn't want to go back. I only had a couple of months left to do, so I stayed. I couldn't do any more sport and just persevered with the pain until I got back to the UK."

Janet was sent directly to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham once back in the UK. An arthroscopy revealed her knee was completely damaged beyond repair for active duty. She spent around 10 years on crutches and underwent two unsuccessful knee replacements - resulting in immobility and chronic pain. In 2016, a surgeon recommended amputation as the only solution.

“My back was getting worse because I was on crutches,” Janet added. “She said the only way you could do it because I was still reasonably fit is amputation. I thought, blimey, that's a bit drastic. Then I thought well, if that's how it is. I was a bit upset at first but a year later, I was in a hospital in Portsmouth having my amputation. I even raised £1,700 for charity when we had a ’Guess the Weight of the Leg’ fundraiser.”

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The way forward

Following her career, Janet has suffered with mental health complications. She was diagnosed with Adjustment Disorder and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The veteran was introduced to Turn to Starboard following a chance encounter in 2019 while visiting her 94-year-old neighbour in hospital. She began working on her Yacht Master qualification, where she crossed the English Channel in Force 8 conditions.

Janet is not only preparing to join the Full Circle Expedition but is also in the final stages of wedding planning to tie the knot with her partner in May. The mission will see two traditionally rigged tall ships, Spirit of Falmouth and Pellew, complete five rotating legs with crewed comprising of 70 wounded, injured and sick (WIS) veterans and serving personnel.

This 12-week expedition set sail from Falmouth on March 17 and aims to visit 22 ports across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, before returning home in June. The crew sailed into Gunwharf Quays and were greeted by residents over the weekend.

Janet will be joining the second leg, sailing from Ipswich to Leith. Throughout the journey, the crew will carry the Invictus Games Flag around the UK, raising it at each port to build momentum towards Invictus Games Birmingham 2027. The voyage is raising £300,000 for Turn to Starboard so the organisation can purchase a second tall ship. The fundraiser can be found online here.