Corporal Sandra Jordan is a nurse in the Camp Bastion field hospital.

The 31-year-old former veterinary nurse gave up treating animals and swapped it for treating wounded soldiers.

Before her stint in Afghanistan the pretty blonde nurse worked at a veternary surgery in South Croydon treating the borough's many wounded pets.

Life in Afghanistan, according to Cpl Jordan, is probably safer than Croydon where her house was burgled twice in just two months.

Cpl Jordan said: “You can't really compare life out here to life back home.

"Work is constant, you are always on call, and you don't really have to worry about what you are going to do on an evening or what to do on the weekend.

Cpl Jordan decided to join the army after becoming disillusioned with working as a locum veterinary nurse.

In 2004 she enlisted and spent three years retraining at Birmingham's Selly Oak hospital.

She said: “It is much more about team work out here. Because a lot of us didn't know each other when we came out here it took time to get to know each other.”

Each day brings something different for Cpl Jordan, whether it be gun shot wounds, improvised explosive device (IED) injuries or a simply case of heat stroke, from one hour to the next she doesn't know what will be brought through the hospital doors.

Although she is able to detach herself from the sometimes horrific injuries she is presented with it is when she sees soldiers in the prime of their fitness flying home to perhaps a year of surgery and physiotherapy she gets upset.

Cpl Jordan said: “I end up getting really upset when I see guys walking around the base laughing and chatting and it suddenly dawns on me they may be the next people through the doors.

"The men are incredibly polite and respectful when they are brought in but they know what they are up against and they love going out on operations.

“For many of the guys when they get an injury they are more upset they will be leaving their mates here and they have to fly home to an empty barracks.

“Back home mainly old people die but out here they are all so young.”

Cpl Jordan plans to spend a month off when she gets back home with her boyfriend, who is a combat medical technician, and her family.

She said: “He didn't really like the fact I was coming out here and said it should be the other way around but because he is also in the army he understood.”

• For more from our reporter Harry Miller in Afghanistan, click here