A former Gurkha soldier who made history after becoming the first double above the knee amputee to climb Mount Everest said he “almost gave up three times” and feared for his life.

Hari Budha Magar, from Canterbury, lost both his legs after being blown up while serving in Afghanistan.

The 43-year-old had always dreamed of scaling Everest, and grew up in the Nepalese mountains before serving for 15 years as a Corporal with the Gurkha Regiment of the British Army.

Hari, who served with the 1st Royal Gurkha Rifles and fought alongside Prince Harry, was horrifically injured after stepping on a bomb in April 2010.

Thirteen years later, after overturning a law banning disabled climbers from the mountain, he has achieved what many thought impossible and reached the top of the 8,849 metre peak.

He summited at around 3pm on Friday, May 19 having climbed alongside a world-class team of Nepalese climbers.

The 43-year-old said: “The journey wasn’t easy, we had to make some tough decisions along the way, but we made it.

“The climb didn’t go entirely to plan because of weather conditions.

“We were supposed to put Camp 5 at Balcony, but we didn’t because the weather made it too dangerous.”

It took 25 hours climbing from Camp 4 to the summit and then back to the camp.

The team started at 9.50pm and arrived back at 11pm the next day.

He continued: “The first summit push climb from Camp 4 was horrible. It was so bad that when we returned from the balcony, one team member suggested that we finish, and go down.”

As they went back up to the summit, they had to slow down at times and wait for weather conditions to get better before continuing.

However, this meant oxygen supplies ran low and some people had to turn back for their and teams’ overall safety.

Hari added: “I also wanted to give up at least three times when half of team had gone.

“The Sherpas, which included my brother, reassured me we could make it and the oxygen would last but even they could not predict how long conditions would delay and supplies would run low.

“As a team we pushed hard and five us made it to the summit. My brother, Nanda Bahadur Budha Magar, Mingma Sharpa, Pasang Sherpa, Jit Bahadur Tamang and I did it. We reached the top of the world!”

The remaining team members then had to get back down the mountain with little oxygen with an ice storm coming in.

He explained: “Two Sherpa’s were nearly finished their oxygen at Hillary Step on way down, so they left me and last other team members to rightly preserve their lives.

“My oxygen was about to finish on South Summit, I was never scared for my life like that before even when I was injured and crashed my car.”

Once his oxygen finished, one Sherpa gave him his oxygen and went back down.

Hari and his brother were left with enough oxygen for just 30-45 minutes, despite still having a long way down to travel.

He said: “We looked for some of the oxygen bottles left on mountain, but they were all empty.

“I told my brother who was with me to go, I just went down on my bum down all the way Camp 4.

“We had no radios, but we had satphone, so we were able to call base camp and relay messages to Camp 4.

“Finally, a sherpa from Camp 4 came up with oxygen and hot water and met us below the balcony and saved us – later two other Sherpas come for assistance and took us to Camp 4.

“The immediate danger then passed. Over the coming two days the team and I went down to Camp 3, then 2 and back to base camp.

“The team and I are now back at base camp with some having moved off the mountain to receive treatment from injuries on the mountain, like my brother who got hit by rocks.

At the end of his expedition Hari said the experience had “really hit home” that if we are “passionate, disciplined, work hard and believe in ourselves” nothing can stop us from achieving our dreams.

“We proved that nothing is impossible.”