A SOLDIER who lost both legs in an explosion in Afghanistan has pledged to walk again – and return to his regiment.

Just two months after a Taliban bomb left Private Josh Campbell fighting for his life, he took part in a welcome home parade alongside fellow troops in Bicester.

His next hurdle is to learn to walk again.

Pte Campbell, 19, has been spending Christmas at home with his family in Melksham, Wiltshire, but will return to the MoD’s medical rehabilitation centre, Headley Court, in Surrey, in January to be fitted with prosthetic legs.

He said: “I have been doing a lot of gym work, building up my upper body strength.

“It’s always a challenge, but I am very positive about it and want to move on with it.

“It’s going to be all about learning to walk with them, and it will depend on how fast my body adjusts, but then when I have finished there, and can walk again, I will go back to my regiment.

“I will be in and out of Headley Court for the next year or so, but it just depends on how fast I learn to walk as to how things progress.

“I will be working Monday through to Friday doing two sessions of physio a day and sessions in the gym and swimming.”

Pte Campbell, of 23 Pioneer Regiment, which is based at St David’s Barracks, Bicester, was manning a heavy machine gun in the turret of a Mastiff armoured vehicle when it was blown up in Helmand Province on September 17.

The force of the blast toppled the personnel carrier, mangling his legs in the gun mechanism.

His life was saved by fellow Pioneer, Lance Corporal Jason Gordon, 34, who fashioned a tourniquet to stem the bleeding.

Pte Campbell was flown to Camp Bastion and then to Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham. During a week and a half while he was unconscious, surgeons were forced to amputate both his legs.

Pte Campbell remains positive about his future and has been rubbing shoulders with celebrity visitiors to Headley Court, including Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne.

Patients there also enjoyed a Christmas meal served up by Sun page three girls and models from lads’ mag Zoo.