'I felt a bit like Elephant Man'
(Filed: 18/11/2004)

Shaun Rusling, 45, from Kingswood, Hull, was an "extremely fit" paratrooper in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was sent to 32 Field Hospital based at Wadi al-Batin on the border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq in early 1991.

Mr Rusling was given a cocktail of vaccines designed to protect the troops from the effects of chemical and biological weapons. "I was ill for 24 hours. I couldn't even get out of my cot: sweating, fever, pains in my joints, headaches, extreme nausea."

Many of those given the vaccines fell ill. Other soldiers were threatened with court martial if they refused to have the injections.

Further jabs were given, said Mr Rusling. "This gave me terrible pain and led to paraesthesia. I was literally dragging my leg around. I was a bit like Elephant Man."

Their base was close to a chemical weapons dump, which was blown up several times in early March 1991, sending up plumes of sarin. The Ministry of Defence Gulf Veterans Unit told him he would have been exposed for at least one day, but "it would not have affected my health".

He suffered a mental and physical breakdown in 1993 and was later given a medical discharge. He claimed a pension on the grounds that he was suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. This was rejected and long legal battle ensued. Despite losing a High Court appeal, the MoD still refuses to accept that the syndrome exists.

Mr Rusling, who chairs the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association, welcomed the inquiry's conclusions as "far more favourable than we expected". He hoped the MoD would accept its "reasonable" recommendations.