A SOLDIER left a prisoner in his sixth-floor council flat after Losing three limbs at war has been offered help
getting a new home and £150,000 to adapt it to his needs. Specialist charity Limbcare contacted Private Alex
Stringer, 20, and offered to help after the Sunday Mirror exposed his shocking living conditions last week.
Wheelchair-bound Alex, almost killed by a Taliban bomb in Afghanistan's Helmand province in January,
cannot get into his kitchen or his daughters' bedroom. And when the lifts break down he can't leave home.
He and his fiancée Danielle Taylor, 19, who have two young daughters, had been told they face a five-year
wait for a more suitable home – a clear breach of the Military Covenant which pledges to give priority to
our Armed Forces. But now Limbcare founder Ray Edwards MBE and the group's director Roy Wright,
who have both lost limbs, have visited Alex to offer to find and modify a home. The charity has set aside
£150,000 for its Help a Hero at Home award and wants to use it to help Alex, of Chadwell St Mary, Essex,
adapt to civilian life. They have contacted Thurrock Council to help modify a new house. Mr Edwards said:
"He is a war hero and should therefore be at the very front of the housing queue. We believe we have found
a house which is empty. We have offered to help Alex and also Thurrock Council by carrying out all the work
so he can get around and in and out and look after himself." Limbcare would adapt the kitchen, install a wet
room, stair lift and ramps, widen doorways, then decorate. Alex, of 23 Pioneer Regiment, Royal Logistics
Corps, who expects to be medically discharged from the Army, said: "The Army's care has been great but
I am grateful for this offer of help and honoured to have met the guys from Limbcare." Danielle said:
"There has been a huge response since the Sunday Mirror story. It is great to meet people who want
to help us." A Thurrock Council spokesman said: "We will urgently find appropriate accommodation
for Mr Stringer."