PRIVATE Alex Stringer watched four fellow soldiers walk safely over a hidden bomb. When he stepped on the device, it went off, leaving him seriously wounded.

The 21-year-old Canvey soldier was on patrol in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in January last year when the explosion robbed him of both his legs and his left arm.

Now Private Stringer, a member of 23 Pioneer Regiment, Royal Logistics Corps, based in Bicester, Oxfordshire, is looking forward to a new chapter in his life, thanks to a new £6.5million centre which opened yesterday in Colchester.

He is one of the first wounded soldiers to be prepared for life on civvy street at the Personnel Recovery Centre, funded by the Help for Heroes charity and the Royal British Legion.

More than a year on from that terrible day in Afghanistan, the father-of-two is preparing to wed his fiancee, Danielle Taylor, this summer.

He said: “It’s brilliant here. The atmosphere is fantastic and they welcome you from the start. I didn’t come away from school with much, just a few GCSEs.

“The centre helps you get to a standard where you can get yourself a job in civvy street.”

Private Stringer will be making regular visits to the centre for training to give him the qualifications he needs to get a job.

He hopes eventually to qualify as a counsellor, helping others with their problems.

He added: “It’s nice to have people coming back to you and saying they have got a more positive outlook because of talking to you. It makes it worthwhile.”

The soldier described the fateful day he was wounded. He said: “The device couldn’t be seen. Four people walked across it. I was the fifth person and I don’t know whether it’s because I weighed a bit more, or I stepped on it at a different angle, but I set it off.

“I remember it, second by second. I remember being on fire.”

Private Stringer was patched up by his colleagues and transported to Camp Bastion by helicopter.

He spent the next four months in hospital before starting the slow path back to rehabilitation.

He said: “I didn’t have a transition period. I just woke up and got over it straight away. I just took things as they came. I’m quite lucky in a sense.”