VETERAN Michael Mellon has been chosen to represent the UK at the Invictus Games Toronto 2017.

Father of three Michael, 37, from Cardenden, served as a Senior Aircraftman in the Royal Air Force, before being discharged in 2005. He is an amputee and lives with depression.

He will be taking part in wheelchair basketball, athletics (shot put and discus) and sitting volleyball.

He says the Games are already having a positive effect on his life after leaving the RAF: “I feel like I’m part of a team again, it’s like I’ve never been away from the Armed Forces.

"I gel with the other athletes and we have loads in common. I hope the main benefit for me will be regaining my confidence within a group, be able to talk to others and feel a part of something bigger.”

Michael, who trains with Pitreavie AAC, is also a wheelchair rugby league player and plays with the Dundee Dragons and Team Scotland.

Prince Harry, Patron of the Invictus Games Foundation, this week unveiled the 90-strong team of wounded, injured and sick (WIS) serving military personnel and veterans who came together for the first time since selection at the Tower of London. Prince Harry met the team ahead of the forthcoming Invictus Games in September, and posed for the first official team photograph.

More hopefuls than ever before, 306 WIS military personnel and veterans, trialed 11 sports for one of the 90 places available on the UK team. The rigorous selection process was based on the benefit the Invictus Games will give an individual as part of their recovery, combined with performance and commitment to training.

The 2017 UK Team Captain was also named as former Army Major Bernie Broad, who takes over the mantel from 2016 Captain, David Wiseman. Bernie lost both his legs below the knee due to injuries sustained in an explosion in Helmand Province in 2009. He underwent four years of extensive surgery and rehabilitation followed by two years of assistance from the Personnel Recovery Unit at Chetwynd Barracks in Chilwell.