War and honour

Phillip Lawrence, 22, from Birkenhead, had his name engraved on the West Kirby War Memorial.

I spoke to his mum Gaynor who said she worried for him so much on his first tour but not as much on the second, because she thought he'd be ok.

But it was on his second tour that he died in an explosion.

I wrote a piece on it for this week's Wirral News but I didn't mention the fact that Gaynor is worried for her nephew's life because he is due to go to Afghanistan.

She said: "It's just the reality that he might not come back.

"You never think it's going to happen to you but it happened to my son and now my nephew is going I fear for his life too."

My cousin Stephen Catterall is also a soldier and goes on tour in Afghanistan.

I know many, many of us will know someone who we love who is out there fighting.

Not only do some of these soldiers die or get external injuries including limb loss, but the horrors they see out there must be traumatising.

My cousin Stephen said that many men are coming back with psychological problems and he himself has seen horrific scenes that affected him deeply.

The damage being caused is horrendous to these men - it's very wrong and I just hope one day we'll be able to live without war.