BOXING hero Frank Bruno has lent his support to a Daily Echo campaign to buy new legs for a soldier who lost both limbs in a suicide bombing in Iraq.

The sports star gave the thumbs-up to our Let's Help Neil scheme, which backs a fund set up by colleagues of Corporal Neil Heritage following the incident in Baghdad last November.

Neil lost both legs above the knee instantly when a suicide bomber blew up a car just two feet away from him while he was working at Camp Dogwood with the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team.

We want to raise £30,000 to buy new, high-tech prosthetics to replace the ones Neil received on the NHS, while his colleagues at London-based EOD are collecting cash for adaptations to the Hamworthy home he shares with partner Claire Renshaw and her son Callum, five.

Fund-raiser Graham Hadfield arranged for Frank to meet Neil after reading about the soldier's plight in the Daily Echo.

The story struck a particular chord with Graham, 52, as he is currently in the middle of running six marathons in six months to raise money for disabled children's groups in the UK and America.

After hearing that the sports hero was to attend the Bournemouth Bay Run yesterday, which he was also competing in as part of his training, Graham made a few phone calls. He said: "I set the meeting up because Neil is a good ambassador for disabled people. He is an inspiration to a lot of people.

"Also, November 7, the day I was running the first marathon in Athens, was the day that Neil lost his legs."

Graham has already raised £6,000 for the UK's Get Kids Going and America's Blazesports, which encourage disabled youngsters to take up sport, and is now looking forward to his final marathons in London and Salt Lake City in America.

Neil said it had been great meeting Frank.

"It was really good, I had a really nice morning," he said."He signed a pair of gloves for me so that was really good and I had a very brief chat with him. He was asking me if I was going to be able to work again and that sort of thing."

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