Boy had PTSD after learning of soldier father’s death on television

Lance Corporal Tommy Brown died in a bomb blast in Helmand in 2009 (file image)
John Moore/Getty Images

A boy was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after discovering on television that his Paratrooper father had been killed by the Taliban.

Lance Corporal Tommy Brown, who was serving with a special forces unit, died in a bomb blast in Helmand in 2009.

His wife tried to keep the news secret to spare their son, now 11, but he found out while watching a TV report on Christmas Eve.

Lance Corporal Brown’s widow told The Sun: “I remember him crying saying, ‘Can Santa bring my daddy back, I don’t want any presents, I just want my daddy’.”

He was treated by NHS child mental health teams and the family was helped by charity Scotty’s Little Soldiers.

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