Ailing Victoria Cross Gurkha winner leaves for UK

Gurkha war hero and Victoria Cross winner Tul Bahadur Pun left his hometown in Nepal for London last night.

London, July 2 : Gurkha war hero and Victoria Cross winner Tul Bahadur Pun left his hometown in Nepal for London last night.

Pun, 84, was denied entry to the UK a couple of months ago. The snub outraged readers who backed the Daily Mirror's campaign to get him a visa. The British Foreign Office finally relented.Virtually blind and in urgent need of National Health Service cataract operations, Pun's emotional journey began yesterday in the mountains of Pokhara, 120 miles west of Kathmandu.

"I am sad to leave Nepal but I am also happy to go and meet my new family and friends, the British people. I feel so grateful. I also give thanks to the Daily Mirror. They are like my godfather now," he said before his departure.

Cheering crowds, including musicians and dancers, surrounded his quarter-mile long cavalcade to the airport, led by 40 motorcycle outriders. Pun will be flown into Heathrow by Virgin via Delhi on Wednesday night to a hero's reception by the British Army.

A spokesman for the Ex-Servicemen's Association in Nepal said: "We've won Pun's case with the Mirror's help but other cases out there still make you feel like weeping."

ANI