Pictured: Heroic female medic who ignored shrapnel embedded in her shoulder to save SEVEN soldiers during Taliban attack



Hero: Lance Corporal Clarke stayed behind to treat wounded soldiers including Corporal Mather despite being injured herself after a Taliban attack

An heroic army medic treated seven injured comrades after a Taliban attack in Afghanistan despite being wounded with shrapnel herself, it emerged today.

Lance Corporal Sally Clarke, of 2 Rifles, ignored the searing pain caused by the shards embedded in her shoulder and back and set about treating the rest of her patrol.

The worst hit was Corporal Paul Mather who incredibly managed to radio instructions for jets circling above to open fire on Taliban insurgents despite bleeding heavily from wounds the size of his fist.

Corporal Mather, 28, and Lance Corporal Clarke, 22, from Cheltenham, were on patrol south of Sangin when insurgents fired rocket propelled grenades over a wall as soldiers dealt with an anti-tank mine.



Hot flying shrapnel sliced open Corporal Mather's body, leaving gaping holes across his arms, legs and buttocks.

He said: 'It hurt like hell, but once the explosions stopped and my hearing came back, I managed to climb through a ditch towards a group of soldiers treating other casualties.

'I had a hole in my left bicep, so the medics applied a field dressing and tourniquet to stem the blood flow.'

Despite being entitled to get out as soon as she was hit Lance Corporal Clarke refused, insisting she would not leave the patrol without a medic.



She said: 'I didn't feel like my injuries were bad enough to go back to the hospital, particularly as I was the only medic on the ground at the time.



'I couldn't leave them on their own - I came out here to support the troops on the ground and give them medical care when they needed it the most.'

Realising the jets and Apache attack helicopters above the patrol had seen the explosions and needed to know what had happened, Corporal Mather told one of the soldiers to take a smoke grenade and throw it into the compound where the grenades had come from.

'The pilot immediately picked up the smoke signal and I gave directions for a strike on to the compound,' said Mather.

He continued to radio instructions until he was on the helicopter where he finally took some morphine to ease the pain.

Corporal Mather is now recovering at home with his parents, Phil and Rose.

He said they were looking after him well and feeding him 'pizza and ice cream'.

Lance Corporal Clarke, who stayed on the ground and accompanied the rest of the patrol back to base, was later treated by a doctor in a medical aid post. She is due home within weeks to visit her parents Chris and Rosemary Clarke.

Tories and Lib Dems clash over best way to boost pay for British troops in Afghanistan



David Cameron and Nick Clegg have clashed over competing proposals to increase pay for British military personnel serving in Afghanistan.



Both party leaders claim that British forces receive a rough deal while serving in what has become Britain's bloodiest conflict since the Falklands.



Today Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg proposed a £6,000 pay rise for the most junior Army ranks to help boost morale.

Other privates and lance corporals should get an salary increase of £3,000, he said, with an extra £1,000 for higher non-commissioned officers.

David Cameron's Tory party has proposed a plan under which soldiers on active duty would be excused some taxes, while Nick Clegg (right) wants a £6,000 pay rise for even the most junior Army ranks

The Conservatives, on the other hand, have proposed a plan under which soldiers on active duty would be some excused some taxes.



The competing proposals open up a new political front as parties jostle to appeal to a public which is becoming dismayed at the high death toll in Afghanistan.



The deaths, on Monday, of Sergeant Stuart Millar, 40, and Private Kevin Elliott, 24, marked the 209th and 210th British fatalities since hostilities began in 2001.



The British Army currently pays its lowest-paid recruits £16,681 a year - a figure described as 'shameful' by Nick Clegg. He wants to increase that sum by £6,000 to put new recruits on an equal footing with new police or firefighters.



The proposed rises would see also see average basic pay across the ranks of private and lance corporal rise to around £25,000. The pay rises - which the Lib Dems claim would cost £400 million - would be funded with cuts in MoD bureaucracy.



Mr Clegg said: 'Nobody can put a price on the sacrifices our troops make on our behalf, but it is clear to everyone that pay levels are shamefully low for the lower ranks. We can't continue to reward the bravery of lions with peanuts.'



The Conservatives' proposal to review tax rates for serving servicemen and women chimes with troops' anger that they are made to pay income tax whilst out of the country and on duty.

British soldiers try to get some sleep in a makeshift compound in a Taliban-held area of Afghanistan. They could be set for a salary increase or reduced taxes under Lib Dem and Tory plans

Last weekend L/Cpl Dean Byfield told Gordon Brown - who was visiting Afghanistan - that he thought it was 'unfair' that UK troops pay income tax whilst other serving NATO troops do not.



The Tory party has already claimed credit for embarrassing the Government into introducing an up to £2,240 tax-free bonus for all serving soldiers in 2006.



Today a spokesman for the party said: 'We led a campaign for soldiers not to pay tax in theatre three years ago and the Government responded with the in-theatre payment.



'We will review how the in-theatre payment is working and come forward with proposals to improve what our soldiers are getting.'



British Army servicemen and women were awarded a 2.8 per cent pay rise earlier this year when the Government accepted the recommendations of the Armed Forces Pay Review Body.



The rise - described by the Ministry of Defence as one of the best in the public sector - meant the basic pay for a private on operations rose to between £16,681 and £25,887.



Yesterday former army officer Tim Collins said that while a further pay rise would be welcomed, more had to be done to look after soldiers generally.



He said: 'It's not all about money. The British Army is a vocation, men and women join really to serve their country. It was never really about money. What they would prefer is to be treated decently.'



A Ministry of Defence spokesman pointed out that Britain's Armed Forces have received good pay increases every year for the past three years.