Fallen hero's mum given Elizabeth Cross

THE mother of fallen paratrooper Corporal Mark Wright is to receive the Elizabeth Cross.

Jem Wright will receive the medal at the annual ball of the UK Reserve Forces Association at the Assembly Rooms on 6 March.

The proceeds of the fundraiser will go towards the charity set up by Mrs Wright and her husband Bob in honour of their son, who died in a minefield in Afghanistan in 2006. He was posthumously awarded the George Cross.

His parents established the Mark Wright Project Centre in Dalkeith to provide counselling and a social centre for troops, particularly those suffering emotional problems on return from war.

The Elizabeth Cross will be presented to Mrs Wright, along with a scroll signed by the Queen, by Major General David Shaw. It is awarded to next of kin of all troops who die in battle, most commonly to their wives or mothers.

Mrs Wright said: "I feel happy to get it, I think it's an honour."

Her husband added: "A chap phoned up and said they do a ball and they'd like to do it for the Mark Wright Project, and so Jem will receive the medal there as well. I thought it was maybe just a kind of badge, but there's a big one, about an inch in size, and there's a smaller one. I was kidding on that I'd get the wee one!"

One of the ball's organisers, Group Captain Bob Kemp, said: "We just felt it was very appropriate to choose the Mark Wright Project. His family have done an awful lot to publicise the needs of troops."