Gunshot wedding!

CELEBRATING: Harrison and Antonia at a recent medals parade

A CHADDERTON soldier who took a bullet in Afghanistan says it was worth the pain — because it led him to his future wife.

Kingsman Harrison Greaves, of the Duke of Lancaster regiment, is to marry fiance Antonia Ifould on Sunday after they met by chance in a Birmingham Hospital.

Harrison (19) was being treated after he was shot above his elbow, while on tour in May, last year.

It was only because Antonia (21) had gone to visit her brother, Chris McInerney, who had been shot in the leg on the same day, that the pair’s eyes met.

The soldiers — who are from different batallions but were mates since training at Catterick, had been put in beds side by side on the ward.

It was also coincidental that Harrison’s mum, Gail, had only minutes before been chatting to Antonia in the waiting room — unaware that their relations knew each other.

Antonia said: “I noticed Harrison in the bed next to Chris and I thought ‘he’s a bit of all right’.

“We went to get something to eat to get Chris out and about and then back in the hospital I saw Harrison’s name on his bed.

“Later I looked him up on Facebook and he wanted to come and meet me in Darwen, where I live, for a few drinks and that was it really.”

The happy couple got engaged in May — exactly one year after they first met. Harrison said he can’t wait for the big day. He said: “She was definitely worth getting shot for and it’s funny that her brother is one of my mates.”

The pair will marry in Darwen and honeymoon in the Dominican Republic, before setting up home in Catterick.

Harrison is due to go back out to Afghanistan in October next year.