Grenadier Guard Thanks Observer Readers

That's the message from 24 year old Lee Hastings of the Grenadier Guards on returning home after months fighting in Afghanistan.

While he was out there, attached to The Anglians Regiment based in Helmand Province, he appealed through the Observer for readers to write to him and his comrades.

His mother Angela, of Salisbury Road, this week called to say: "He wants to say thank you to everybody that supported him by sending out parcels and letters which he and all his friends appreciated."

Lee is now back in Aldershott after spending seven months in Afghanistan.

"He is obviously glad to be home, glad to be back, but he misses his friends in The Anglians, and is just happy to have done some good out there."

Angela added: "It is a relief...you almost feel guilty that you want them back, but you are no longer listening to the radio or watching the television all the time and getting so anxious. But obviously bad things are happening - I don't think people realise because you only hear about the people that die, you don't hear about the people who are injured over there."

She is hoping to see Lee in a Sky One film about Ross Kemp in Afghanistan with The Anglians, expected to be broadcast at the end of November.