Mansfield man who sold peanuts to tourists joined Army to repay family who saved him

Lance Corporal Gopal Vaakode, 35, who now lives in Mansfield but is originally from Goa in India, explained how he was motivated to join the British Army to "repay his debt" to the English family who helped him as a child.

Gopal was 12-years-old when he first met the Hanson family who were holidaying in the west Indian state, where he was walking 10 miles a day selling peanuts to tourists.

As a child, he would sometimes sleep on the beach or in a tent on the side of the road, to provide for his three younger siblings and his mum.

The 12-year-old asked tourists Carol Thomas, 55, and Colin Hanson, 64, a couple, and his sister in law Linda Hanson, 70, if they'd like to buy some peanuts.

Instead, the trio took Gopal shopping for clothes and food for his family.

Carol, Colin and Linda promised the teenager they'd see him when they returned next year - and by pure chance, bumped into him on the beach, 12 months later.

This ignited a lifelong bond between the families and within days the trio had persuaded Gopal and his mother Peckrrva, to let them help.

They sent money from the UK for food and supplies and paid for the family to live in a rented home in Goa every monsoon season, coming to visit them for up to six months.

It was a stark difference to scavenging plastic bags to sell for rupees, and allowed the kids to go back to school.

At 19, Gopal started to visit his 'foster family' in the UK for months at a time, and on one trip joined the local cricket team on an away match at an army barracks.

It was during this visit that a brigadier asked him if he'd consider joining the British Army - and the young adult leaped at the chance, to repay the people and country who had helped him.

Ten years later, Gopal, who is now a Lance Corporal lives with his wife Jasmine, 26, daughter Daisy, seven, and still feels like "luckiest kid in the world".

He said: "The main reason I wanted to join was to make my family proud and say thanks to Linda, Colin and Carol for everything they did for me.

"I will forever be in debt to them, but joining the army was my way of repaying them by doing something important in this world.

"There was a day when I had no food, nowhere to sleep and nothing to look forward to in life.

"Now I have a loving family with an incredible wife and an amazing daughter. I really could not ask for more."

Businessman Colin added: "He has made us all extremely proud with what he is achieving in the army, and now he has a wonderful family too.

"It was an amazing journey, and we're overjoyed to have met him."

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