“I heard a click and I thought I was dead.”

One July morning in 2010, he changed the lives of both Antony “Coops” Cooper and David Jack Plant.

Friends from the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment were on patrol in Afghanistan when Coops stepped on a metal bar.

“I heard a click and thought, ‘Oh no.’ I’m done.” I thought I was dead,” he said.

He was standing on an improvised explosive device (IED), and the explosion that occurred took out his legs, most of his fingers, an eye, and caused the most serious brain damage medics had recorded in Afghanistan.

Three minutes after an American Black Hawk helicopter transported him to safety, David stepped on the IED.

He also lost both legs.

Coops remembers his helicopter turning around to pick up his friend before they were both taken to Camp Bastion and the long road to recovery began.

To mark the launch of this year’s Remembrance and Poppy campaign, the two men reunited after more than a decade apart to talk about the impact this moment has had on their lives and the support the Royal British Legion has given them.

At first, they supported each other during their recovery.

However, after 18 months of rehabilitation at Headley Court, David claims he “escaped” to Spain.

He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and was unable to cope with everything that had happened.

He left behind family, friends and Coops. “I just went to a really dark place. I was going into a spiral,” he said.

It was then that he tried to take his own life.

Within 50 minutes, two local support workers from the Royal British Legion arrived at his home in Spain.

“They literally picked me up and took me to their place in Murcia,” he said. “I remember they gave me macaroni and cheese and chopped up hot dog pieces.

“I will never forget them. They literally saved my life. They helped me see things in a different way and I’ve been rebuilding it ever since.”

The Royal British Legion helped him move to his new home in Cumbria, making adaptations so he could live independently.

They bought him a special hand bike so he could leave the house and start living again in the Cumbrian Hills.

Earlier this week I met David at Astley Park in Chorley to talk about his experiences in Afghanistan.

After struggling to find the right words, he can only say: “it was hell on earth.”

“I couldn’t always talk to people about what happened. But the Royal British Legion was always on the phone.”

At that moment, his old friend Coops arrives at the park. They both hug and are at a loss for words.

“We were both there,” Coops said. “We both did the same thing. Everything we did, we did more or less together.”

However, over the last decade they have drifted apart.

The mental scars of war forced David to withdraw until he was alone and lost hope.

“We were much closer together in the beginning, you’re right,” David tells Coops. “I drifted away.”

“Yes,” Coops replies. “But I know where you are now. I won’t let you drift away again. I will come and find you.”

Coops remained in a coma for five weeks and was told he would never walk or talk again, but he defied doctors.

The Royal British Legion financed the adaptation of his house and also provided him with a hand bike so that he could go outside.

“They were amazing,” he said. “They have always been there for us and I can’t thank them enough.”

“I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supports the Royal British Legion,” says David.

“I would also like to thank Coops very much. Seeing how strong he was and how he handled everything really helped me.

“I know I helped him,” Coops replies. “But in the beginning he did the same for me. When it first happened, I thought, “why me?” And then: “Why am I still alive?” We both lost a lot of friends. It was so difficult.”

This year, the poppy campaign wants to remind people of the deep psychological scars of war.

Seeing Coops and David embrace for the first time in ten years and fly around Astley Park on their bikes, it’s clear what the allure of the poppy can do to a life ruined by war.

Coops is getting married next year, and David has just found a new job.

Both men look to the future and say they will look into it together as friends.

They are both redheads, and David jokes, “I always say the Taliban attacked redheads that day.”

“Well,” Coops replies, “I always say they hurt us, but they didn’t get us. You know that? We’re still here, right.