Record Christmas post for Camp Bastion

More than 130 tonnes of Christmas cards and presents have been sent to UK soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

Around 18,000 bags of letters and parcels have been delivered over the past week, which is more than five times the usual amount.

After arriving at the troops’ main base at Camp Bastion, the goodies are dished out to units operating in smaller, remote bases via helicopter and road convoys.

Bags of mail were stacked up at the passenger handling facility in Bastion, known as “mini Heathrow”, yesterday morning, ready to be flown to patrol bases and checkpoints in time for Christmas. The unit then sorts the deliveries and transfers items to where they need to be.

Corporal Jamielee McCreadie serves with the Theatre Logistics Group, which is part of the Royal Logistics Corps and is the entry point for all equipment and letters that come into Bastion.

Cpl McCreadie, 25, from Arbroath, Angus, said: “We have seen a real surge in parcels in the run-up to Christmas. In the past week we’ve had 18,500 bags of post or about 130 tonnes. This compares to a normal week when there’s about 3,500 mail sacks.”