Serviceman paralysed in Taliban blast walks again with hi-tech ‘exo-skeleton’

However, now he has stunned doctors by taking his first steps in two years – thanks to futuristic “Robocop” legs.

The lance corporal, 24, was in an armoured vehicle hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan in 2012.

While his colleague escaped with burns and broken bones, the father-of-one took the full force of the blast and was paralysed from the waist down.

But now the ex-engineer has defined medics by taking his first steps thanks to a prototype
 ‘exo-skeleton’ controlled by a joystick.

He said: “It was really cool, but also really strange, to be walking again after so long. Having no feeling or control below my chest made seeing me moving even weirder.”

L/Cpl Ogilvie, who was on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, in a ground-based role securing airfields, said: “I was six weeks lying on my front in a hospital bed.

“I wasn’t allowed to move at all because my spine was so badly broken. I thought I would go mad with boredom.”

The ‘exo-skeleton’ is a prototype by New Zealand-based company Rex Bionics and while it is still in development, it is thought he could be using it full-time in a few years.

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