ARMY Nurse Grahame Ratcliffe has seen in the new millennium in snowy Bosnia.

Staff Sergeant Ratcliffe, 45, from Blackburn, was one of 4,600 British troops serving in Bosnia over Christmas and New Year.

He is working at the multi national hospital facility at Sipovo in central Bosnia, and is helping to provide vital medical support to the International peacekeeping force in Bosnia, which is still recovering from its war for independence from Yugoslavia.

Grahame is a clinical nurse practitioner in the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps and it was work as usual on Christmas Day.

His wife is also a nurse and she was working over Christmas.

Grahame said: "We are planning a late Christmas in February when I get back."

His parents Eric and Mary still live in Blackburn, and Grahame was a pupil at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School before he joined up in 1977.

During his career he has served in Germany, Hong Kong and Belize.

Grahame usually works at the Military wing of Northallerton Hospital in Catterick, North Yorkshire.

He is married to Margaret and they have a 17-year-old daughter Rebecca.

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