A SOLDIER based in the region paid the ultimate sacrifice when he was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

The news emerged last night as dozens of Territorial Army (TA) medics arrived home to jubilant scenes in the North-East following a four-month tour of duty to help operate a field hospital in Afghanistan.

Their happy return contrasted with news that the soldier had been killed and five colleagues injured by a roadside bomb in south Afghanistan.

The soldier, a member of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, who has not been named, was attached to the 5th Regiment Royal Artillery, which is based at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire.

Five injured soldiers were taken by helicopter to the International Security Assistant Force medical centre at Camp Bastion - which the TA medics had helped run.

The 57 medics from 201 Field Hospital, based in Fenham, Newcastle, were welcomed last night by proud family, friends and supporters.

The unit also draws its members from detachments in Newton Aycliffe, Carlisle and Norton, near Stockton.

The homecoming comes more than a year after they began preparing for their deployment - the first time this field hospital has been deployed as a unit on operations since the Second World War.

During their stint in the dangerous Helmand Province, they were close to ferocious fighting which claimed heavy casualties and they tended to the soldiers and Taliban wounded alike - as well as civilian casualties.

Lieutenant Colonel Sharon McDowell, second in command, from South Shields, South Tyneside, who works as a medical ward manager at Sunderland Royal Hospital, said: "I have come home with a definite sense of achievement by providing the best medical care we could give.

"There are young soldiers living in very difficult and harsh conditions while performing a demanding and dangerous job.

"Some of them do get injured, so it is important that they have good medical back-up.

"I was honoured to be part of the medical team out there.

"The team all worked hard in extreme conditions, they just accepted it and get on with it."

Lieutenant Colonel Ram Banerjee, who is a surgeon at Sunderland Royal Hospital, said: "The biggest challenge as a surgeon, paradoxically is, not in the operating theatre. I'm at home in the operating theatre.

"The biggest challenge is actually in the resuscitation room and making the right decisions for the patients. That may mean not operating on the patient, or operating."