Simon Weston was almost burnt alive when the troopship Sir Galahad was bombed by Argentine jets during the 1982 Falklands War.

He has since undergone scores of operations to rebuild his face and hands, which melted in the inferno.

But there was no trace of self-pity or regret when he spoke at a meeting to raise funds for hundreds of ex-servicemen maimed by war or disabled by illness.

There was a deathly silence in Worthing's Dome cinema as former Welsh Guardsman Mr Weston recalled the horrifying moment when a bomb exploded just feet in front of him.

Moments before it detonated and ignited fuel and ammunition, he was swapping banter with his pals while playing, and winning, a game of poker dice.

Suddenly, an air raid warning sounded on the ship's Tannoy and seconds later the bomb struck.

Simon recounted: "The bomb came in from the right to the left, three rows away from where I am standing now.

"It detonated, and there was a fireball which came over us.

"Inside the ship it was carnage. It was awful. I only survived because three guys in front of me took the main blast off me.

"I stayed too long in the fire because I was trying to help my friend escape."

As his hands began to melt, Simon ran across the prostrate bodies of his dead and wounded comrades, trying desperately to get out of the flames, away from the screams.

On deck a friend cut off his trousers, which were still alight, and threw them over the side of the ship.

He said the rest of that day was a blur after medics knocked him out with drugs to dull the excruciating pain.

More than 350 people in the Dome listened as Simon explained the torment he endured trying to come to terms with what had happened to him.

He said: "I lived with the problems, the pain and the depression for quite some time before they actually surfaced.

"Initially I got so much Press attention because I was the worst injured to come back alive.

"I was never allowed to sit on my own for too long. I was never allowed to wallow in my own mire.

"But when that happened I turned to the booze. I drank for eight or nine hours a day. I was drunk for the best part of three-and-a-half years."

At his lowest point, plagued by demons, he tried to kill himself with a crossbow but was brought to his senses when the string he had drawn back to propel the bolt caught his fingertips, which had been sewn on to his mutilated hands by surgeons.

Simon said: "I was allowing myself to give in.

"All of the effort hundreds of people had put in to help me get better would have gone out of the window.

"I am pleased to say I have never visited that darkest moment again."

But he was damning about the fact 350 former veterans, many the victims of post-traumatic stress disorder, had committed suicide in the past 21 years.

Simon said: "The screams of men that are dying don't disappear.

"They come back to visit you in the wee small hours and it is hard to live with.

"That is the most disappointing thing. There wasn't enough done for the ex-service community."

Simon had been invited to speak by Worthing councillor Tom Wye, a former major in the Army, who is president of the Worthing Combined Ex-Services Association.

Proceeds from the talk, estimated to be more than £2,000, were evenly split between Gifford House, also called the Queen Alexandra Home for Disabled Ex-Servicemen in Boundary Road, Worthing, and the Royal Star and Garter Home.

Simon told how he joined the Welsh Guards to escape a life of crime. He served in Berlin, Northern Ireland and Kenya before the Argentines invaded the Falkland Islands.

Today, historians blame senior military planners for the Sir Galahad disaster, when infantrymen were kept on board the troopship for too long and became a sitting duck for enemy aircraft.

But Simon said: "I have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.

"A lot of people may think my life has been awful . . . terrible. Yes, it has been hard. There have been problems, insurmountable problems, or so they seemed at the time.

"But I have had a very good life. I have been able to do things most people can only wish for. I have been privileged to do an awful lot.

"There are 48 guys on the Sir Galahad who would love to be standing here tonight. Whatever I have been through is nothing at all.

"The people in charge made a mistake and that's for them to live with. It is a complete waste of time to be angry.

"I am now great friends with the guy (the Argentine pilot) who blew me up.

"It's not personal. If I blamed somebody, I would start to get poisoned in my own mind.

"Ultimately, I have achieved a damn sight more by being balanced about it."

Mr Wye said: "Simon was terribly wounded during the Falklands War.

"He has gone through horrendous pain and a plethora of operations and he has come out of it a stronger person."

Before the speech, nine members of the Durrington Sea Scouts presented a cheque for £822 to Gifford House, having raised the money from a sponsored Brighton to Worthing walk.

The Scouts, who were loudly applauded by the audience, also voluntarily tend war graves at Broadwater cemetery in South Farm Road, Worthing.

Mr Wye said it showed the youth of Durrington in a good light following recent newspaper reports of teenage yobs terrorising and running amok in the suburb.