Lance Corporal Ross Clayton was only in the country for a few days but squeezed in a visit to his parents in Scalford Road, a barbecue with friends and proposed to girlfriend Leanne Coyne in a packed London restaurant, which received a round of applause.

The combat medic is currently attached to the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment in Helmand Province helping to train the local forces and loving it.

He said: "It is bloody hard work. At the moment my job is Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team, helping the Afghan National Army. We go out on patrol for five or six hours at a time, it's roasting hot and we are carrying on average 25kgs of kit with us all the time. But we get through by complaining. If a soldier isn't complaining, there is probably something wrong."

And Ross has had his fair share of scares. After returning from a patrol he was told by a group of locals there was a bomb, known as an improvised exploding device, on the path they had already passed but luckily missed.

For more get Thursday's Melton Times