HERO soldier Jonathan Lee who lost a leg when he was blown up in Afghanistan has a new goal in life - to take part in London's Paralympic Games in 2012.

Jonathan, an infantryman who was on patrol when his armoured Land Rover went over a land mine, says he is determined to carry on running and playing football once he has mastered his new prosthetic leg.

The 25-year-old, who is learning how to walk again at a military rehabilitation centre in Surrey, also plans a holiday in Hong Kong with his soldier cousin, before he continues his Army career.

He said: "The Army has told me I can stay as long as I want. It might not be in an physical job but the Army is my life. I have been a soldier for eight years and I love it."

Jonathan, whose parents Brian and Jeanette live in Ladybridge, Bolton, has told how he was blown out of the Land Rover while in a four-vehicle convoy with the 2nd Yorkshire Regiment, the Green-Howards, in the Afghan desert.

His mother Jeanette has revealed how her only son made a mobile phone video diary for his parents as he lay badly injured in a military hospital.

"He told me where he was and what was wrong with him. He made it because he thought he was going to die," said Mrs Lee.

Recalling the day of the explosion, Jonathan said: "It was a strange day and we had an odd feeling, almost sixth sense, that something was going to happen.

"The armour-plated Land Rovers were packed with explosives and I had a rocket launcher at my feet.

"We left a road and went over the desert and I had my body out of the roof doing a 360 degree look-out when I spotted fires. The Taliban light fires to signal to each other.

"I crouched down in the Land Rover to tell my officer and the next thing I knew I woke up on the ground. I was dazed and dizzy and started calling to my mates," said Jonathan.

Amazingly the ammunition - grenades, magazines of bullets and the rocket launcher - packed into the vehicle, and being carried by Jonathan, did not go off.

It is believed the vehicle's wheels may have triggered the land mine. The explosion ripped through the floor, into Jonathan's foot and throwing him out of the Land Rover, which then flipped 360 degrees before landing on its side.

Jonathan drifted in and our of consciousness and then when he came round, checked himself for injuries. He then realised his leg was shattered. "There was blood, my ankle felt like jelly, my leg was bent like a boomerang and there was a bone sticking out. My first reaction was that wanted to get out of there."

He started to drag himself towards the convoy but was ordered to stop when his colleagues saw another mine just a metre away.

Jonathan had to wait two hours for a bomb squad officer to clear a path to him. Meanwhile, helicopters and other units formed a fortress around the convoy to protect them from Taliban attacks.

Jonathan lost his morphine supply in the explosion, so another soldier threw his supply of the drug to him from the roof of a nearby Land Rover.

"I managed to catch it and injected myself to ease the pain," said Jonathan.

After a medic, who was on his first job, eventually reached Jonathan, he was airlifted to hospital.

"I want to thank that soldier and the medic who risked their lives to come and save me. I also want to say a big thank you to the doctors and nurses. People forget about them."

He was flown back to the UK, where eventually his leg was amputated. Part of his ankle bone had also been brought back to the UK in a box.

"It was kept it in a cupboard next to my bed. Doctors had hoped to be able to repair my leg, but they couldn't."

Within two weeks he was back on his feet and learning to walk.

His knee is secured by a metal plate and pins but he spends eight hours a day on his gruelling schedule.

He says he does not have time to get depressed, although he has had some low times.

"There are people here with much worse injuries than mine. I just get it out of my head, nobody here lets you feel sorry for yourself," he added.

Jonathan, a Bolton Wanderers fanatic, has received a get well card from the club and he is looking forward to some leave when he is hoping to come home to see them play.

And he is also planning to get in training for the Paralympics. "It is something I really want to do," he said.