In 2010, safely back in Camp Bastion and two days before he was due to return home to his family in the UK, Corporal Phil Eaglesham RM phoned his wife Julie to say he’d be back home with her and his three young sons in just a few days.
The very next day he became ill with flu-like symptoms, and was eventually diagnosed with Q Fever. This is a relatively rare degenerative disease with acute and chronic stages. The prognosis was dire and Phil remembers: “It wasn’t good. I wasn’t expected to survive.”
Day by day, he physically deteriorated. This had a huge impact on him psychologically ae well, turning him into a person neither he nor anyone else recognised from the person he had been before.
It wasn’t good. I wasn’t expected to survive.”
The strong courageous Royal Marines Commando who had seen service in the jungles of Malaysia and Brunei, in Norway, Iraq and on two tours of Afghanistan, became wheelchair-bound and needed 24-hour care.
Phil and his family were battling hard to come to terms with the enormity of what had happened. The house they were living in, too, was becoming increasingly inaccessible for him. As his condition worsened, simple things like tucking his children in at night or reading them a story in bed, became impossible. He was trapped in a downstairs’ world.
RMA – The Royal Marines Charity realised that to help keep the family together, a specially adapted home would be the only solution – and that the only way to achieve the bespoke home that Phil and his family so desperately needed was to build it from scratch.
So, with the help of many generous people and companies, the Charity custom built the house “that made us a family again. To be able to interact with my family helped ease the pressure on them and made me feel like the father I wanted to be again,” said Phil.
that made us a family again. To be able to interact with my family helped ease the pressure on them and made me feel like the father I wanted to be again,”
However, they continued to face ongoing struggles and, in 2015, it all became too much for him:
“I tried to take my own life. I’d just had enough of the deterioration and the impact it was having on my wife, the kids, others around me. It’s difficult to talk about it, but it’s good to talk about it.”
The Charity once again stepped in, supporting him with his ambitions to take part in the Paralympics. He worked incredibly hard and refused to again give up. He secured a place in the Ireland Paralympic Shooting team, from where he went on to take part in the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games, with sterling performances hinged around many factors, not the least of which was the solid support and security of his family.
Moving on and having long wondered why wheelchairs had never had a ‘cool re-design’, Phil determined to set up his own company and, with the help of the Charity, has set up Conquering Horizons with the aim to design and create a more hip, truly maneuverable, new-generation wheelchair that not even a physically challenged 14-year-old would be reluctant to use.
And in more good news, having been placed on a different programme of medication, in early 2023 Phil’s family was thrilled to witness him starting to walk again! “How long my new medication is going to work I don’t know, but I’ve now had a few more years than I thought possible.”
Although Phil’s future remains uncertain and there is no way of knowing how quickly his improved condition might last, for now he and his family have some respite and can look more positively to the future.
“But where it goes, who knows? I remain determined to make the most of the better days now in the hope that they continue to improve – or before they again become few and far between.
From the bottom of our hearts, we would like to thank RMA – The Royal Marines Charity. There is no doubt that without them, I wouldn’t be here today.”
‘Never above you, Never below you, Always by your side’ – thank you for showing you are on their side, too.’