Pain centre
In 2014, in physical agony and with tortured emotions, Major Mark Campbell left the Canadian Armed Forces. It had been four years since he was targeted in Afghanistan by Taliban insurgents, who triggered an explosion that claimed both his legs above the knee. From that moment, pain has been a constant companion.
Campbell felt like his feet were on fire, although they were no longer part of his body, and for a long time nothing seemed to help much. He became clinically depressed and “took to the bottle for a few years.”
“It has been quite a struggle.”
He is not alone.
Many CAF veterans live with chronic pain. More than 40 per cent of veterans who left the military since 1998 have chronic pain—two to three times the rate of civilians, reported Life After Service Studies. In a mental ...