MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands' veteran Simon Weston 'so proud' to be awarded the CBE in Honors List

“To be given the CBE for charity work means a great deal to me because it's something that I have been very passionate about over the past 33 years,” said Weston.

Falklands war veteran Simon Weston said he was “so proud” to be awarded the CBE in the New Year Honors list. Mr. Weston, who is already an OBE, said the award “came as a complete surprise”.

 The former Welsh Guard was horrifically injured on board the Sir Galahad ship in 1982 and is involved in service veterans' charities in particular. He paid tribute to those who had supported him, in particular his mother and his wife.

“To be given the CBE for charity work means a great deal to me because it's something that I have been very passionate about over the past 33 years,” said Mr Weston, who was brought up in Nelson, Caerphilly county.

“I still have to pinch myself. I'm just a boy from a coal mining village in the valleys.”

The CBE recognizes his efforts championing a range of charities, from organizations supporting military veterans and ambulance crews to people living with disfiguring scars or conditions.

Speaking after the Buckingham Palace investiture ceremony, he said: “It's not something you do to be recognized, the charity work, so to be recognized when there are so many incredible people out there is just a real honor.

The former soldier said: ”There's a part of me wishes I didn't get injured but, when you look at everything in my life now, the injuries are clearly not the worse things that have happened to me.

“Losing my friends on that dreadful, dreadful day, that was horrible; my father and my grandfather dying in the same week, that was terrible – those were worse.

”It changed the course of my life without a doubt and maybe it's the big heavy slap that some people need to change the course for the better.

“It's allowed me to redefine what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be, but the other thing that came with all of that was I decided I wasn't going to be defined by that incident, I was going to be defined by what I did about it.”

Mr Weston is patron of a number of charities which support people living with disfigurements, and he set up a national youth charity, the Weston Foundation, which was active between 1988 and 2008.

His latest charity project is called Care After Combat, which he helped set up with comedian Jim Davidson to support veterans whose lives are in danger of spiraling into drink, drugs, crime and mental health problems.