Tim Hughes continues his reports from the frontline of the war on terror. Today he meets some of the remarkable men and women supporting Oxfordshire's troops on the battlefields of Afghanistan.

LLOYD Nolan Crockford leads an extraordinary double life.

When he is at home in Oxfordshire, the softly spoken 30-year-old works as a forklift driver at a garden centre.

Now, however, he is risking his life day-after-day to rescue badly injured casualties on the Afghan frontline.

Rifleman Nolan Crockford, from Charlbury, is a member of the 7 Rifles - Oxfordshire's territorial infantry battalion - providing armed support to airborne medical teams, evacuating victims of the fighting and getting them to hospital.

He is just one of the Oxfordshire professionals putting his life on the line to help British and Afghan soldiers and civilians, when things go wrong.

Based at the British desert headquarters at Camp Bastion, in Helmand province, it's a dramatically different existence to his regular job at Yarnton Nurseries.

"I am here to act as protection for the medical teams on the helicopters," says Rifleman Nolan Crockford - a member of Camp Bastion's Incidents Response Team.

"I live here in a tent and am permanently on 15 minutes' standby - ready to jump in a helicopter and go. Incidents can range from gunshot wounds to burns. It's very much like an ambulance.

"I have been out to rescue victims of an RPG attack, and yesterday went to the aid of a heart attack victim.

"The aim is to go in and rescue without creating more casualties.

"It is satisfying just being here making sure people, including Afghan police, soldiers and civilians, are getting the best care.

"It can be dangerous, and what you perceive as a normal situation often isn't. We once had to land in a minefield to rescue a casualty, which was hazardous. Unfortunately he died.

"It does make me nervous - but I'm very much a nervous person."

With regular injuries from landmines, bombs and fire fights, the role of the medics is vital.

Among them is Lance Corporal Leonie Barnard, 26, a former Oxford Brookes University student from Headington - also a member of 7 Rifles.

"The whole experience is amazing," she explains, during a break in a combat first aid training session at Camp Bastion.

"We are here to save lives - and that's what we are doing."

Also serving is Platoon Medic, Lance Corporal Carl Young, 26, from Wiltshire.

The two medics are also remarkable for being one of the very few couples serving together in Operation Herrick. The pair met more than three years ago, but had lost touch until arriving in Camp Bastion.

"I always wanted to be a paramedic," says LCpl Young, who is on his fourth tour with the army.

"I get bored being at home. Here we are responsible for picking up casualties and have been mortared. I prefer life on the ground in places like Musa Qala. If the enemy come after us, that's fair play."

Commenting on romance in the Afghan desert, he laughs: "People do have a laugh - but it's good having a girlfriend here."

Proof that the British are bedding in for the long-term is the completion of a state-of-the-art hospital in Camp Bastion.

The metal-walled building replaces a tented field hospital. And so impressive are its facilities - which include a cutting-edge £100,000 mobile X-ray machine, and two operating tables - staff admit it puts many UK hospitals to shame.

"With this hospital we could probably look after a city," said Medical Support Officer, Captain Simon Bunn.

"We are getting a lot of people coming through with injuries to their extremities. We have got good helmets and body armour, so people are surviving - but getting more limb injuries.

"Although there is an increase in limbless soldiers coming in, they would previously have died."

Major Suzy Beeching - second in command at the hospital - added: "It's comparable, if not better, to an NHS hospital back home.

"A lot of cottage hospitals at home would kill for something like this."

The hospital was opened by Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth, who spoke to the Oxford Mail at Kandahar Airfield, praising the contribution made by Oxfordshire troops and medics. He said: "We have never used our territorial reservists in the way we are nowadays. They are making a phenomenal contribution.

"I don't think there's a full appreciation in Britain of what our people are managing to do. But people are beginning to cotton on to what these guys are doing."