Medics at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) have hailed Afghanistan veteran Cass Little’s victory in the BBC’s charity dance show, The People’s Strictly.

Lance Corporal Cass is a Royal Marine medic who lost his right leg below the knee when an improvised explosive device was triggered in Helmad Province in the summer of 2011.

Three of his colleagues were killed and five others seriously injured, including Cass.

But despite his own horrific injuries, he attempted to tend to his colleagues on the ground after the attack.

He was airlifted to Birmingham in an induced coma and spent two months at QEHB receiving treatment from the joint military and civilian trauma team.

It was his former colleagues in Afghanistan who put the 33-year-old’s name forward for The People’s Strictly, a reality show based on the smash hit Strictly Come Dancing which gave six specially nominated superfans the chance to take to the dance floor for Comic Relief.

After a gruelling training regime Cass and professional dance partner Natalie Lowe performed the paso doble, gaining a perfect score of 40 from the judges before being revealed as the winners of the public vote during the BBC’s record-breaking Red Nose Day extravaganza.

Among those glued to their TV screens for the show was critical care and anaesthesia consultant Sue Sinclair, who was part of the team that treated him.

“Cass is an extraordinary ambassador for these guys and how resilient they are,” she said.

“To see him doing so well now is such a great tonic for the people who looked after him, and the many like him, when they were with us at UHB.

“The team here at the time really went the extra mile to help these guys, opening up extra theatres, drafting in extra beds, working evenings and weekends.

 “So to see them go on and do something like Cass has done just warms your heart, it’s fantastic. It just validates everything that everyone who played a part in looking after him did.

“We are a meaner and leaner trauma unit as a result of our work with the military and that has benefited all the patients that have come through the department since.”

Wing Commander Jon Kendrew, a trauma and orthopaedics consultant who also treated Cass added: “I will always remember his time at the hospital well. Cass was surrounded in intensive care by the people he had tried to help before being blown up himself.

“It was they who nominated him. That particular scenario was unique and very, very moving. I have stayed in touch with all of them.

“I think he is a true example of all that is good here at the QE!”

Canadian Cass is still in the Royal Marines and working as a presenter for Forces TV and the British Forces Broadcasting Service.

A lifelong dance enthusiast, he now has ambitions to become an actor and presenter.

“I’ve always been a performer. I majored in ballet at university in Canada,” he said. “I was even an intern at a modern dance company, but never thought I could make a living from it, and somehow ended up in the Marines.”

And he admits to mixed emotions when he first learned that he had been chosen for The People’s Strictly.

“I didn’t think I would ever dance on a stage in front of an audience again. After Afghanistan, I wasn’t sure I’d ever dance again, full stop,” he said.

“To be honest, when I first found out I had been chosen for The People’s Strictly I reacted negatively.

“My first thought was, ‘Why would they ask a one- legged guy to go on a ballroom dancing show?’ Yes, I’ve had dance training, but I haven’t danced in ten to 15 years and I’m missing a leg – a whole bunch of negative thoughts of just pure bitterness.

“But a few days in I realised I am a one-legged Royal Marine Commando from Canada. I am going to raise money for kids. I am going to raise money for people who need it, for Comic Relief. I’m going to help.

“And you know what? If you want to be a broadcaster or a presenter, it’s pretty good exposure, too!”