FLOWERS and frocks have had to take a back-seat for a Bishop Auckland bride-to-be, as she serves on a peace-keeping mission in Bosnia.

Corporal Jamie Parkin is due to get married in just over a month, but the run up to her wedding is being spent in eastern Europe, where she is serving with The Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers as part of a Nato peacekeeping force.

She is serving alongside her fianc, Andy Wightman. The couple will return home for the wedding on May 11.

Cpl Parkin, 23, said: "I was originally supposed to be going to Kosovo and Andy was coming to Bosnia. But I asked my boss if I could come out here as well, and he fixed it for us.

"Being together does help because we both know what the other is putting up with and the conditions in camp. We still have separate lives and friends."

Cpl Parkin, a former Wolsingham Comprehensive School pupil, is a qualified telecommunications technician.

The role of the Nato multi-national peacekeeping force in Bosnia is to help the country and its people recover from the recent conflict.

A huge building programme to replace houses and businesses is continuing, and troops are helping to provide humanitarian aid and deter further violence.

The force's other duties include arms checks, to ensure former warring groups are not stockpiling illegal weapons, and helping refugees to reclaim their former homes.