Child-rescue soldier 'gut-wrenched' over Afghanistan's fall

Andrew Wardle said despite the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban the war effort had been worth the sacrifices

A former soldier who was decorated for rescuing a wounded child in Afghanistan said the fall of the country to the Taliban had been "gut-wrenching".

Andrew Wardle, who received the Military Cross after he ran through a firefight, said he had found the scenes from Kabul airport "upsetting".

The 33-year-old, of the 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, was later medically discharged for stress.

However, he said he felt the sacrifices made had been worth it.

In January 2010, the former Lance Corporal, from Hetton-le-Hole near Durham, ran across open ground to rescue the boy who had been shot in the back after he wandered into the middle of a gunfight in Helmand.

The following December he was at Buckingham Palace to receive one of the Army's highest honours.

A year later he was medically discharged from the Army suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Andrew Wardle ran 50m (160ft) across open ground to rescue a five-year-old boy while under enemy fire

Mr Wardle said: "We put 100% effort in when we were out there and it's gut-wrenching to see how quickly Afghanistan seems to have fallen.

"There is that feeling in the back of your head that makes you think: 'Was it all worth it?'

"All that effort and it all seems to have fallen apart. It is upsetting.

"I don't think I will ever fully recover from it but you do learn to control the symptoms. I turned to alcohol which is a big coping strategy in the Armed Forces, though I don't get the flashbacks anymore."

He added: "The Army has made me, in good and bad ways, the person I am today. I did get mentally injured when I was over there.

"But even knowing what I know now, I'd have still gone. The work we did helped the Afghan people by stabilising the country and for the last 20 years they have been OK and managing.

"The child I rescued would have had a completely different life if we had not been there."

Paratrooper Nathan Cuthbertson's parents have kept his memory alive by raising money for charity

However, for the father of a paratrooper killed in action, the British involvement in Afghanistan felt like a "pointless waste of life."

Nathan Cuthbertson, who was 19 and from Sunderland, died in a suicide bombing while on patrol in Helmand in 2008.

His parents Tom and Carla Cuthbertson have kept his memory alive by raising more than £400,000 for veterans and other charities.

Mr Cuthbertson said: "It is heart-breaking just wondering: 'what have they all died for?'

"All the people who have been injured as well. What we have had to endure for the past 13 years makes you think what's been the point?

"Such a waste of life."

Tom Cuthbertson said: "It is heart-breaking just wondering: 'what have they all died for?'