Afghanistan

Soldier's campaign for sperm to be frozen before frontline deployment

The Ministry of Defence has underlined that soldiers who want to preserve their sperm as a precaution against injury on the frontline must pay for it but advice is free.

For one of those soldiers it is already too late. Sergeant Rick Clements was left unable to have children after losing his legs in an IED blast in Afghanistan.

He's now campaigning for soldiers to be given free treatment to freeze their sperm before deployment.

He said: “This is heartbreaking for my ­fiancée and I. I wish someone had told me to make a sperm donation before I went to Afghanistan.

“Not a day passes where I don’t regret it. Now I just want to do all I can to warn other troops, ‘please, please don’t make the same mistake as I did’.”

Sgt Clements was injured in Helmand province last May and believes the issue he's raising has become a taboo subject because the Army fears it will put off ­potential recruits.

He said: “The Ministry of Defence is doing brilliant work warning soldiers about the dangers of losing limbs at war. But there is no warning that fighting could leave you unable to have children. No one wants to talk about losing your testicles – it’s a highly emotive subject.”

US troops are already given help to donate and preserve sperm. Sgt Clements says UK soldiers deserve the same.

An MOD spokesman said: “We provide service personnel with pre-deployment advice on fertility preservation, should they request it. This includes information on how to access approved fertility preservation services that they could use at their own cost.”

PHOTO: Ministry of Defence