A PARALYMPIC hopeful has put his desire to win gold in Athens down to his time in the Queen's Lancashire Regiment.

And disabled marathon runner Mark Brown has now pledged his support to the Evening Telegraph's campaign to save the county's only surviving regiment.

Mark, 42, joined the Army with the Queen's Lancashire Regiment at 16. But his military career was cut short by a motorcycle accident.

He was left partially paralysed and his left arm had to be amputated. He was later discharged on medical grounds.

And today the athlete, who hopes to bring home a gold medal at next month's 2004 Paralympic Games, said: "The regiment is a family. All the officers, men and non-commissioned are from Lancashire. They are my brothers."

Mark, of Parkinson Street, Foulridge, a former Barden High School pupil, joined the QLR in 1978 and served in Cyprus before a six-month tour of duty in south Armagh, Northern Ireland.

But since his discharge in 1982, Mark - who won the Grass Roots champion in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's Pride of East Lancashire awards - has become the county's most successful disabled runner, winning bronze in the marathon at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics and silver in Sydney four years later.

And he still keeps in touch with old QLR pals. He said: "I gained a lot from being in the QLR. A lot of my successes in sport are from that time. It taught me about resolve, about resilience."

Mark believes merging the regiment would weaken it as a fighting force and damage recruitment.

He said: "I was quite disturbed to hear our only regiment was going to be dissolved. To be among fellow Lancastrians is a feeling of belonging.

"It may be a psychological thing but every little bit of positiveness in a negative situation, such as a battle or patrolling the streets in south Armagh, helps.

"This is where I feel the Ministry of Defence and Government have got it badly wrong."

A defence review which could see Lancashire, along with 18 other single battalion regiments, merged to form seven regional regiments is now under way.

Both Mr Brown's grandfathers also served in the Queen's Lancashire Regiment during the Second World War and his mother's father was killed at Dunkirk.

He added: "People I speak to either have friends in the QLR or their brothers or uncles served with them.

"It draws people from a very close community. It touches a lot of people."