A MUM of four from is raising money to allow her former soldier husband to get a special brain scan to help him battle illnesses suffered while on service with the army.

Kate England has created a Crowd Funding webpage to help raise money for her husband James England, who served in the army for eight years, including a tour of Bosnia and three tours in Iraq.

While on a German base, Mr England was involved in a road traffic accident, being thrown out a vehicle resulting in a head injury and bleeding to the brain. Despite that, he went on to complete two tours of Iraq.

After displaying a change of character, with headaches, insomnia, and loss of temper, Mr England was given an MRI scan, which revealed he had three more bleeds from the original injury.

He was later also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The family, from Stonesfield, near Witney, are hoping to raise £5,000 so Mr England can have a so-called MEG scan, which builds up an image using magnetic fields, to help differentiate which of his conditions are related to the road accident, and what symptoms are related to PTSD as both illnesses ‘mimic the symptoms’ of the other.

So far they have raised £600.

Mrs England said: “I only recently set up the page. I have been looking into this for a number of years, reading research papers about things they have done on American veterans.

“A MEG scan is not like an MRI scan. It deals with the electrical currents that run through your head.

“In the UK there is only a limited number of these MEG scanners, but it is more established in America and Canada, so we’ve been fighting the Government to create a pathway within the NHS to be created for veterans and serving personal, and even civilians, to receive the treatment.”

“We have been fighting for a pathway, but even though it is recognised that it is needed, it has not happened.

“There is a lot of politics around it and so we are trying to force their hand.

“Currently the pathway is only available privately.”

This means people like the England family cannot get the procedure on the NHS.

Mrs England added: “Unfortunately this means we have to pay for it privately, and unfortunately the scans are not cheap.

“If it was on the NHS it would be much less stressful.

"So right now we are kind of having to battle against the system.

“James receives his war pension, I am a full time carer, we have four boys and the diagnostic scanner is expensive, so we have been left with no other option but to create this crowd funder.”

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“James has gone through so much – it has not been easy.

"It has been really, really hard actually and we were drowning for a long time until I started to learn more and then shout about the treatment.

“I basically became a researcher finding out what it is, why it would be good, how it works. It has been a huge learning curve but through the research I have been able to meet amazing families going through the same thing.”

You can donate to the cause at justgiving.com/crowdfunding/kate-england-2