The nursery is finished, there have been numerous trips to Mothercare and the car seat is boxed and ready in the hall. They are preparations any expectant parents might make, yet for Martyn and Michelle Compton, every addition to the pretty green and yellow nursery is poignant.
When they first met the couple talked openly of their desire to have a family one day. It seemed a simple enough wish. But then Martyn, a Lance-Corporal in the Household Cavalry, was posted to Afghanistan on his first tour of duty.
Five weeks after his arrival, in July 2006, Martyn and his colleagues drove into a Taliban ambush. Three of his friends died instantly when a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into the armoured vehicle he was driving. Martyn survived both that and a second grenade attack but suffered 70 per cent burns to his body.
He was in a coma for three months and when he regained consciousness, his once-honed body was ravaged, his face unrecognisable. His eyelids had been fused inside out and he had lost his ears, nose and hair. Then only 22 years old, he was told he might never walk again. Instead he endured endless operations and determinedly learned to walk again so he could accompany his fiancee down the aisle.
Michelle and Martyn had known each other for only five months and been engaged for two weeks before he left for Afghanistan but her love and support never wavered.
The couple were married at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, near Folkestone, Kent, on July 12, 2008. Now, it’s only five weeks until their baby is due. They are delighted, yet even this happiest of occasions has been marked by tragedy. In July last year, Michelle went into premature labour, giving birth to twins, Harry and Freya, at 22 weeks. The babies died that same day.
Bright future: Martyn and Michelle on their wedding day in 2008 and,
below, before Martyn was injured in Afghanistan
Their four-bedroom home in the village of Sedlescombe, near Battle, East Sussex, is warm and welcoming. Surrounded by a menagerie of dogs, goldfish and a parrot, Bud, they display quiet dignity.
Michelle, 30, says: ‘When I found out I was pregnant, we were ecstatic. When it was twins, we thought, “that’s the perfect family”, particularly as it was a boy and a girl.
'This time we were still over the moon but a lot more cautious. We didn’t buy anything until a few weeks ago. We weren’t going to tempt fate.’
It was on the weekend of their first wedding anniversary that pregnant Michelle first began to feel unwell. She says: ‘We were going to London because it was our wedding anniversary.
'We arrived on the Friday and were going to go out for a meal but I had really bad lower backache. I got some paracetamol but the pain wouldn’t go away. ‘It got so bad we called Martyn’s gran who used to be a midwife. She said that doesn’t sound right, you need to get yourself to hospital.‘We got to University College London Hospital at about 10pm. They said, “You’re in labour and you’re going to have to give birth”.’
Harry was born at 1.10pm the following afternoon, weighing 1lb 4oz. Freya arrived ten minutes later weighing a shade over 1lb 3oz.
Michelle says: ‘Freya came out breech (bottom down) and they said her body was so bruised because her skin was so fragile, there was nothing they could do. She lasted 44 minutes.
'They put her in a dress and hat and handed her to me. She was so tiny but perfectly formed. She was smaller than a child’s doll. I was holding her when she passed away.’
Meanwhile Harry had been placed in an incubator.
‘He was doing well,’ says Michelle. ‘He came out without a bruise on him and he cried when he was born. We’ve both said we’ll never, ever forget that cry. We went down to see him and I put my hand in the cot and he grabbed my finger.
‘But then they said there wasn’t enough oxygen in his blood. We asked how long they were going to keep him on the machine and they said another hour. But we decided for his sake to turn it off. He died at 11.45pm.’
The following day, their wedding anniversary, Michelle and Martyn returned home, shellshocked.
A week later Harry and Freya were buried together in the graveyard of their village church. Michelle says: ‘It was pretty dreadful at first. We did keep saying, “Why us?” ’When we got back from the hospital, I couldn’t go into the room we had prepared for them. It was months until I said to Martyn you can open the door.’ Slowly, they put their lives back together for the second time. Michelle returned to work teaching at Bexhill fundraising for the Household Cavalry Operational Casualties Fund. Doctors could not explain why Harry and Freya were born so prematurely. So when Michelle became pregnant again, there was fear as well as joy. She says: ‘When they said it was one baby it was a bit of a relief. ‘Everything was fine. I passed the 22-week mark but then at 24 weeks a scan showed the neck of my womb had started to open. I burst into tears and said I can’t go through this again.
‘I have what they call an incompetent cervix. The growing baby puts too much strain on it and so it opens. There are no contractions, just backache. That’s why I didn’t know before that I was going into labour. The doctor gave me an emergency stitch around the cervix. Now I feel happier as the baby is near full-term.’ Meanwhile Martyn, 26, has made remarkable progress and is in the sledge hockey squad for the Paralympics.
However, there is no escape from the emotional and physical impact of his injuries. He says: ‘I’ve had about ten operations in two years. They took bone out of my elbow to help the movement. The skin between my fingers had become webbed and I’ve had that removed. They cleaned my head because of infection and fixed my top lip. It’s never-ending.
'I spoke to [Falklands survivor] Simon Weston a while ago and he still has stuff done. It’s up to you and how much you can take. ‘I do lots of physio and I play disabled ice hockey. You use sledges rather than skates. I don’t know if I’ll make 2012. But we’ll see. I want to stay in the Army for now. It’s nice to raise money for the lads. We’ve got a fashion show and fundraising dinner at the Dorchester on Tuesday, Fashion For The Brave.
‘I’ve got used to life now. I’ve had to but it’s still difficult. People staring, that’s not very nice. I still find it hard to go out sometimes.’
Martyn and Michelle’s strength and love for each other is genuinely humbling but they refuse to see it that way. Michelle says simply: ‘I fell in love. You fall in love with someone not just for their looks but their personality.
'If Martyn doesn’t change as a person I’m not going to stop loving him. I would never walk away.’
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