GAZETTE & HERALD: BOMB victim Paul Lawrenson, who suffered appalling injuries, including the loss of his arm in the Bali blasts in 2002, has joined with MP James Gray to fight for the rights of other bomb survivors.

Mr Lawrenson, 38, of Cepen Park South, Chippenham, travelled to Bali in October 2002 and was on the first day of a two-week scuba diving holiday when he was caught up in the second of two giant explosions in the resort of Kuta Beach.

Mr Lawrenson had gone to the Sari bar after a last-minute decision to stay an extra night in Kuta.

"I had booked out of my hotel on the day of the bombing and was planning to move on that day, but a shopping trip took too long and at the last minute, I decided to stay on an extra night," he explained.

"I asked the hotel staff where was best to go for a drink and they suggested the Sari Club."

Mr Lawrenson was one of hundreds of tourists enjoying a drink in the bar when the first bomb went off across the road.

"There was a huge bang from somewhere across the road," he explained.

"Straight away I knew that something terrible had happened.

"Someone said something about it being Paddy's Bar, which was further up the road and people started crowding against the front of the bar trying to see what had happened.

"It was very quiet," he added, "I also heard someone say the word bomb and less than 30 seconds later, a larger bomb went off, right in the bar where I was standing."

Mr Lawrenson, a former Westinghouse Rail Systems worker, is understandably reluctant to describe the scene in the Sari Club after the bombing.

"It was horrific," he says, "It's difficult to put it into words.

"The explosion had been deafening and so many people had been killed.

"I had been standing close to the front of the bar, where many people had died.

"I knew that I was badly injured. I could not feel my right arm, but I didn't look at it. My leg was also injured, although I didn't realise how badly.

"But by that time, my adrenaline had kicked in and all I knew was that I had to get out."

Mr Lawrenson explained how he managed to get out of the front of the wrecked bar and into the street where he shouted for help.

"There were people everywhere," he said, "Then a young Australian woman came up to me and put her arm around me and we just started walking up the street."

Incredibly, Mr Lawrenson and the woman who was helping him, found a taxi, which already contained an Australian man with a serious head wound the driver then rushed them to the local hospital.

Mr Lawrenson said: "Indonesia does not have the kind of health service we do. We knew it could be some time before an ambulance came and we just wanted to get to the hospital as soon as we could."

Doctors at the hospital revealed that he had suffered a serious shrapnel wound to his leg, which had sliced most of the skin away from his shin, leaving the muscles and tendons exposed.

Worse still, his right arm had been terribly injured and they didn't know whether it could be saved."

Some of his colleagues and friends saw him being interviewed in hospital by TV reporters, so they knew he was alive.

Mr Lawrenson said: "My employers at Motorola contacted me soon afterwards and as well as arranging for me to be flown to hospital in Darwin, Australia, for treatment, they also flew my family out to see me there. It was very emotional, they hadn't known whether I was alive or dead."

During the next two months in hospital in Darwin, Mr Lawrenson's leg was given extensive skin grafts. But his right arm had been so badly injured in the blast, that it had to be amputated.

Mr Lawrenson described losing his arm as "shattering".

But as well as the physical difficulties he faced, Mr Lawrenson was shocked to discover he was not entitled to the Disability Living Allowance on his return to Britain.

"I was refused disability living allowance because I had been working in the Chinese capital of Beijing for six months before the attack," he explained."Even though I was paying tax and national insurance in Britain I was told I had to be physically over here to qualify. I could not claim until the end of May last year.

North Wiltshire MP James Gray said: "It is an injustice that Mr Lawrenson did not get the DLA straightaway.

"I have asked the Minister to look into the way these benefits are assessed.

"I will be doing all I can to help the campaign."