A MOTHER has spoken of her fears for her 18-year-old daughter who is based with coalition forces in Iraq.

Aly-Joy Haworth, who grew up in Great Harwood, joined the 16th Corp Support Medic Regiment just under two years ago to get training for her dream job as a paramedic, and is now serving with the 23 Squadron paratroopers.

Her mother Stephanie Haworth and stepfather Tony Gorman, of James Street, Great Harwood, told of their fears for the tiny, 4ft 10ins tall soldier with the big smile.

Stephanie said that she last heard from her daughter a week last Wednesday and was finding it difficult to get on with her everyday life.

She added: "I can't function and am finding it hard to sleep. You wake up thinking about it. She is too young to be a soldier. The last time she rang she was still on the Kuwait-Iraq border. We assume she has moved forward and is now in Iraq.

"Before she went away she was very brave. She rang us before she was moving out and said: 'Don't worry about me I am going to be fine.'

"The whole family are devastated but then again she might do some good. If she could help the people of Iraq she would be happy."

A supporter of the Labour Party in the past, she added: "Tony Blair has betrayed us - his kids aren't on the front line. The whole war is awful and it is going to create so many casualties."

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