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When Belinda Stricker decided on a career as a nurse, little did she know she'd spend a part of her working life rescuing members of Britain's armed forces from some of the most dangerous places on the planet.

But the 32-year-old has recently found herself working in the middle of a hurricane in Anguilla, saving lives in Belize and rescuing soldiers from Kabul!

The team can be called into action at only 12 hours notice to fly anywhere in the world to bring back injured servicemen and women and their families.

The former John Port Secondary School student said: "The most exciting flight was when we were called to Anguilla – I'd never even heard of it!

"It was the rainy season, the plane flew in the middle of a hurricane, and everyone wondered what an English nurse was doing there!"

Belinda, whose parents still live in Hilton, left school and studied for a BSc Nursing degree at St Martin's University College, Lancaster in 1999. Then she took the decision to join the RAF - and her feet have barely touched the ground since!

Her performance was good enough to earn her a recommendation for a commission - and she graduated from the RAF's elite Officer-training college, RAF Cranwell, in 2007.

She saw service in Afghanistan, and Ascension Island and had been part of evacuation flights to North and Central America before joining the RAF Lynham unit.

During the past 12 months, Belinda's unit has been to 78 countries and has brought back 4,300 patients on 1,800 flights.

But travelling the world was not the main reason for her decision to join TacMed. According to Belinda, the best part of the job was: "Seeing the relief on patients' faces when they see me.Ìý You can see them thinkingÌý 'someone's going to get me home'."