After a struggle through the courts lasting over two years, former Gurkha and wounded veteran of the Falklands war, Gyanendra Rai, has finally been granted permission to live in the country for which he fought.

Rai took the news with the calmness of one who has already fought much fiercer battles. “I am very, very happy,” he said, last night. “I have had a quiet dinner with my friends and now I am ready for bed.”

Rai was badly injured in 1982 when an Argentine artillery shell ripped a hole in his back.

“I woke up in a field hospital and in my left hand was the chunk of metal the Army surgeon had just removed from my body,” Rai recalled. “I still have it in my house.”

For a year after being wounded, Rai was moved through several different hospitals before finally being discharged in Aldershot to rejoin his regiment. He retired from the British Army in 1987 and returned to Nepal.

In 2006, Rai made two applications to move to England where he hoped to receive medical treatment. Despite submitting photographs of his horrific scar along with his applications, both were rejected on the grounds that he had failed to demonstrate sufficiently strong ties to Britain.

Rai was shocked by this statement. “I fought for Britain, I shed my blood and paid income tax when I served in UK,” he said. “I was given blood in a British hospital and so quite literally have British blood running in my veins,” he added, laughing.

Over time, Rai began to be troubled by pains in his back. He frequently lost feeling in his left leg and had difficulty sleeping. The Nepali doctors prescribed painkillers but these brought only temporary relief from the symptoms. Rai is now on a permanent course of tablets and he explains that they are damaging his kidneys.

“When I feel the pain again from my wound, I think I am going to die,” he said.

Not all former Gurkhas are envious of life in Britain. Cham Prasad Lama now runs a training academy, preparing potential recruits for the rigorous selection process of the British Army. Bristling with outrage, this ex-colour sergeant believes that Nepali people should be proud to live in Nepal and fears that modern life in Britain will corrupt the morals of the soldiers and their families.

“Their children will go off the rails,” he warned. “They will go around having sex with English people all over the place.”

His trainees were undeterred by this horrifying prospect and returned to their training with renewed enthusiasm.

Rai does not have any such concerns for his children. “If they come to UK and they don’t get a serious job, I will send them back to Nepal, where they can dig in the hills,” he said sternly.

Despite his elation following the result, Rai still does not trust the British Government. “They are very, very clever,” he said. “They may try to delay the time it takes for me to get to UK.”

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