A FORMER soldier left with a haemophilia-like condition after receiving a double dose of Gulf War vaccinations plans to sue the Ministry of Defence.

Martin Topp claims the blunder destroyed his health, fitness and a potentially brilliant military career with the Royal Engineers.

Now Martin, 29, is working as a lecturer in engineering at Blackburn College and receives a fraction of the service pension a glittering career would have commanded.

He said: "I am very bitter.They have destroyed everything for me."

Martin, of Leyland, was sent to the Gulf towards the end of the conflict having already been given the first of a two-stage set of inoculations for diseases like plague, cholera and anthrax. When he arrived, medics forced him to repeat both stages of the treatment - now also blamed for Gulf War Syndrome - because they did not have his medical records.

He claims a high-ranking army doctor later told him there was a "strong possibility" that the double dosage was responsible for causing his illness, and has obtained copies of his medical records proving what happened.

He said: "My condition was diagnosed by accident when I was later serving in Northern Ireland.

"I was treated by civilians at Belfast City Hospital for my blood disorder. They also removed my spleen.

"Afterwards, I returned to Aldershot for treatment and assessment.

"They denied it had been anything to do with the Gulf War or my vaccinations. I was told I was cured."

The rare condition - drug-induced thrombocytopenia - causes almost identical problems to the blood disease haemophilia after the sufferer is infected with even a minor ailment.

Mr Topp added: "I have to take penicillin for the rest of my life. "My immune system attacks the virus and then starts attacking my body.

"If I get a common cold, I come out in severe bruising.

"My three-year-old son recently had chicken pox and despite the fact that I have already had it, it affected me."

Martin, son of a soldier with 18 years' service, joined at the Princess Marina Military College aged 16 in 1985 and was named best recruit from the 180 intake.

After three-and-a-half years, he was a class one corporal and believes he would have attained at least warrant officer rank if his prospects had not been stalled by his health.

He added: "I was physically fit and ran four or five miles a day. After taking steroids I ballooned to 13 stone and was unable to exercise."

Martin was medically discharged in August last year with a payment of £11,500 and a monthly pension of £230.

A higher rank would have commanded a pension of £400 to 500 and much higher pay off.

Mr Topp will travel to London for a report from a top doctor before deciding on how to mount his case.

His solicitor, Geraldine McCool of Manchester law firm Leigh, Day and Co, said: "I have a vast number of Gulf War clients.

"Martin is very unusual in that he was given two sets of vaccinations and because of the condition he now has."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.