{"id":1713,"date":"2012-08-31T11:25:08","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T11:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/p=?1713"},"modified":"2012-08-31T11:25:08","modified_gmt":"2012-08-31T11:25:08","slug":"paralympics-british-armed-forces-hero-derek-derenalagi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/paralympics-british-armed-forces-hero-derek-derenalagi\/","title":{"rendered":"Paralympics British armed forces hero &#8211; Derek Derenalagi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Making his debut in the Paralympic Games at London 2012, Derek Derenalagi has quite a story to tell.<\/p>\n<p>Five years ago, he was initially pronounced dead after being injured while on a tour of duty in Afghanistan until a faint pulse was noticed on the operating table.<\/p>\n<p>However, despite losing both legs in the explosion, Derenalagi showed tremendous courage to fight back from this perilous position and is now looking to crown his turnaround in fortunes with a gold medal.<\/p>\n<p>After being spotted at a Paralympic Potential Day and receiving support from military charity Battle Back, he was eventually enrolled on a Talent Transition Programme sponsored by the British Paralympic Association.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Derenalagi will be competing in the discus in the Games &ndash; he is the current European Paralympic champion and also takes part in the javelin &ndash; and he also has ambitions to become a full-time fitness instructor.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of his lucky escape from death, the former soldier told the Sun: &quot;I'd a chance of a new life where I could try to inspire others. I swore that's what I would do.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Posted by Trevor Smith<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ADNFCR-2867-ID-801439698-ADNFCR\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.directnews.co.uk\/feedtrack\/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2867&amp;itemid=801439698\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Derek Derenalagi is aiming to cap a remarkable turnaround by winning gold in the discus at the Paralympic Games. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Paralympics British armed forces hero - Derek Derenalagi - Forces Penpals GB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/paralympics-british-armed-forces-hero-derek-derenalagi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Paralympics British armed forces hero - Derek Derenalagi - Forces Penpals GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Derek Derenalagi is aiming to cap a remarkable turnaround by winning gold in the discus at the Paralympic Games.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/paralympics-british-armed-forces-hero-derek-derenalagi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Forces Penpals GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-31T11:25:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Forces Penpals\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Forces Penpals\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/paralympics-british-armed-forces-hero-derek-derenalagi\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/paralympics-british-armed-forces-hero-derek-derenalagi\/\",\"name\":\"Paralympics British armed forces hero - Derek Derenalagi - Forces Penpals GB\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-31T11:25:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-08-31T11:25:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/#\/schema\/person\/838421ba314559f45d1a97df988b553c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/paralympics-british-armed-forces-hero-derek-derenalagi\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/paralympics-british-armed-forces-hero-derek-derenalagi\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/paralympics-british-armed-forces-hero-derek-derenalagi\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Paralympics British armed forces hero &#8211; 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