IT'S taken the best part of 50 years, but Bill Lowe is finally able to lay to rest some of the ghoulish memories that have haunted him since his adolescence.

Images of bodies being brought into hospital and war victims badly scarred by terrorist activity have lived with 68-year-old Bill throughout his adult life.

But returning to the Suez Canal Zone for the first time since 1956 was as therapeutic as it was emotional for the former Royal Army Medical Corps corporal.

Bill, from West Rainton, County Durham, was among a group of 75 veterans who travelled to Egypt to visit the war zone and the graves of their comrades.

"For many, including me, it was the first time back there," said Bill, who was conscripted as an 18-year-old. "It was terribly emotional. "Lots of things have not changed - it is still absolute poverty there and very much undeveloped.

"We saw the remnants of our army camp with bits of barbed wire and old towers and all my memories came flooding back.

"In many ways the trip has helped me put things to rest for me - memories which have stayed with me for many years."

Bill, a retired businessman and grandfather of 11, was able to make a new life for himself after returning from the Middle East. But he becomes emotional when he talks and thinks of those who were unable to.

"Looking at the graves of those servicemen, many only 19 or so, the age I was at the time, brought home the sacrifice they made," he said. "In those days, bodies did not come home.

"A lot of grotesque things happened to troops. People were tortured, mutilated. There was dysentery and disease.

"I was a nursing orderly then a patients' pay clerk, looking after the casualties coming in.

"It was an horrendous thing for an 18-year-old to have to endure. It was traumatic seeing wounded people, dead people.

"It is important future generations are reminded that these young servicemen we left behind never had the chance to get married, have children, or do all the things I have enjoyed."