GOING for gold is a Beacon Hill athlete who has been selected for this year’s Invictus Games.

Kirk Hughes, 37, will join 550 wounded servicemen and women from 17 allied nations in the third Invictus Games taking place in Toronto this September.

Kirk, pictured, from Eight Acres, who was medically discharged from the Royal Navy in 2002 was left with life-changing injuries after contracting meningitis in 2000.

He was over moon when he heard he had been selected for the sports he loves – hand cycling, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis.

“It was absolutely incredible and I couldn’t believe that I had been chosen to compete in all three,” said Kirk after his selection.

“I went to watch the London Invictus Games in 2014 and loved the ethos behind it and what it stood for,” he continued.

Although he missed out on the 2016 games Kirk made sure he got his form in for this year’s event and was delighted by his successful application.

Now involved in rigorous training regimes along with training camps and a weekend of trials at Bath University, Kirk is raring to go, flying out to Toronto on September 21 for the week-long games which take place between September 23 and 30.

But he won’t be saying farewell to his family as his wife, Diana, and children Bobby, 10, and Izzy, 13, as well as his mum and dad will also be flying out and cheering him on in Toronto.

Based in Portsmouth during his Navy days from 1997 to 2002, Kirk first knew that he was seriously ill when he was taken ill on his ship HMS Invincible in Plymouth and flown to hospital.

He was unconscious for the first week of his three-week stay in hospital and the disease caused serious nerve damage to his left leg among other problems which in turn left him wheelchair bound.

Though he admits to “being left to his own devices” following his disability, Kirk who said he was “pretty sporty” before the illness, enjoying recreational running and playing football, was determined to make the most of his life, taking up new sports and adopting a positive approach to everything he did.

He also took on a new full-time job working for Surrey Police in its control room in Guildford – a big change from the military, he says but it’s a job that he finds “very fulfilling.”

“It’s the feeling of camaraderie of taking part in the Games, you put in all you can and it gives you a good focus on where you want to be.

“It would be quite easy to say ‘I’m disabled’ and sit back,” said Kirk who has a great passion for sport and te Games in particular.

“I just think it is a fantastic and a brilliant way to shine the light on wounded servicemen and veterans – they aren’t just people who sit around and do nothing and I’d love to come back with some medals.”

He has high praise for Prince Harry, mastermind of the Invictus Games.

“It is the way he organised it and highlights the need to bring everything into the limelight with 62 per cent of new athletes taking part and well over half of them new to the the Invictus ethos.”