JUST an ordinary guy doing his job – that’s how Jan Fourie sees his part in saving the life of a badly-injured Worcester soldier in Afghanistan.

The 26-year-old lance corporal, of 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, was a member of the patrols platoon who rushed to help sniper Lance Corporal Tom Neathway after he was caught in a boobytrap blast.

Under unrelenting fire from Taliban fighters, the platoon medic – who had qualified just six months before the Helmand operation – used tourniquets to stem the blood loss from his friend’s terrible wounds.

Then, with communications down, he held him during a difficult 2km quadbike scramble to the military helicopter that would evacuate him for emergency surgery.

As previously reported in your Worcester News, L/Cpl Neathway, who lives with his parents Alan and Amanda and sisters Lauren and Charlotte in Astwood Road, Worcester, lost both his legs and an arm in the attack.

Recalling the incident, which happened in a deserted Kajaki building on July 22, L/Cpl Fourie said: “I heard a big bang and ran to the building and got in.

“I saw Tom lying there. I thought he was dead, but then he spoke. He was on his front, and you could see he was a triple amputee.”

L/Cpl Fourie paid tribute to the bravery of L/Cpl Neathway – his friend of three years.

“During the whole thing, Tom refused morphine; he said he wasn’t in pain,” he said.

“All I could do was apply tourniquets, give him a little water and reassurance.

“He was proper, proper calm, and even made a few jokes on the back of the quadbike.

“Tom is the hero. Because he was calm and had no self-pity.

“Everybody, that day, did extraordinary things, and I was the bloke who was put up for the nomination, but it is for everybody.”

Earlier this month your Worcester News reported that L/Cpl Neathway had achieved his dream of standing to receive a medal from the Prince of Wales.

The 25-year-old, a former pupil of Bishop Perowne High School and St Barnabas Primary School, used prosthetic limbs and a crutch to stand shoulder to shoulder with comrades and meet Prince Charles at the Parachute Regiment’s passing out ceremony.

L/Cpl Fourie’s skill, courage and determination are being recognised through a nomination in The Sun’s new military awards – The Millies.

The winners, chosen by a dozen top national and defence figures, will receive their awards today during a televised London ceremony led by the awards’ mastermind, the Prince of Wales, and Britain’s military chiefs.