A STUDENT who won a landmark compensation victory over the Ministry of Defence is putting his back into raising money for servicemen’s charities.

Denied money by the military after his soldier father Michael died in a motorbike accident, 17-year-old Lewis Thompson, from Bishop Auckland, successfully took on the MoD in court last year with the help of Royal British Legion lawyers.

Now he is repaying the favour by organising fundraising events for the Legion and Help the Heroes, the charity that supports wounded service personnel.

Lewis has already collected almost £500 from a sponsored car pull in Cardiff and is now planning a similar event in the North-East.

He can lift 120kg after training for the past year and pulled a bright orange Renault Clio through the city centre earlier this month.

Lewis, who studies uniformed services at Bishop Auckland College, said: "I just want people to recognise what these charities do.

"It’s our lads and women out there fighting an incredible battle and we can’t imaging what they go through.

"These charities help them and their families and they need our donations."

Lewis was living in Cardiff in 2003 when his father Sergeant Michael James Thompson, a 38-year-old chef serving with the Royal Logistics Corps, was killed in Cyprus on his way to work.