Nick spent his birthday with a machine gun in his hand

For while most young men go out partying to mark the occasion, Nick spent the day hanging off the back of a dinghy clutching a machine gun in hostile waters with not a wink of sleep.

The former Grove School pupil, of Millfield Rise, returned to Bexhill last week after two months patrolling and scouting the complex system of waterways of south eastern Iraq with his elite colleagues of the Royal Marines Special Boat Service.

And he wants to thank Observer readers who gave him a major morale boost when he received 14 parcels sent through the Supporting Our Troops campaign.

Nick said: "I wasn't even supposed to go to Iraq but someone got injured and they decided I was the only person who'd had anything near similar training. So I had to learn a new job in a matter of days.

"It was pretty scary but that's what I signed up for."