Army friends of an experienced paratrooper are raising thousands of pounds to bring him back to his Colchester barracks after he was critically injured in a freak accident when a sky-diving stunt went tragically wrong.

Lance Corporal Lee Crudgington was involved in a serious incident while he was paragliding in France eleven days ago.

Gazette: Injured Para Lee Crudgington

The experienced soldier, who was believed to have been on holiday, was “speed flying” – a highly skilled but dangerous form of advanced paragliding that involves using small high-performance wings to descend mountain slopes at high speed.

The 38-year-old father of two from Essex, who joined 2 Parachute Regiment 17 years ago, is a veteran member of the crack Red Devils Army Parachute Display team and has made more than 5,000 jumps. He has also served on operational tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He was rushed in to intensive care and needed an emergency 12-hour operation to stabilise his injuries which include a badly-damaged pelvis.

Gazette: Injured Para Lee Crudgington

Doctors are now deciding if he is well enough to be transferred back to the UK and his friends are desperately trying to raise thousands of pounds through the “Support our Paras” charity to help his return for further surgery – followed by a long period of rehabilitation.

An Army friend said today (WEDS):”Lee is one of our own – family – and we take care of each other. We have been supporting him and his family in France but now we need help – on top of mounting medical costs in France, Lee will need a special aeromedical team to fly him back to the UK where he will have to undergo further surgery and start a long spell of rehabilitation.” ENDS