AN army medic from Bolton has been battling freezing Cumbrian temperatures during a gruelling training exercise designed to test his ability to work anywhere in the world.

Cpl Stephen Shaw joined about 130 regular and reserve soldiers in an exercise on Burton Fell, in which he assessed and treated simulated casualties in conditions designed to look and feel like a real-life conflict zone.

Cpl Shaw, aged 26, has served in the army as a regular soldier for eight years, and is based in Preston with 3 Medical Regiment, a unit responsible for providing pre-hospital care for soldiers on operations.

The troop corporal said the training has been demanding.

“My role this week has been to advise and mentor some of our reservists, so when we leave them alone they can run the treatment centre – I’m a kind of line manager," he said.

"We’ve had actors coming through with simulated injuries so we’ve seen everything from stings and broken bones to amputees and trauma.”

Cpl Shaw has just returned from adventure training with the army in Austria but has also served in Afghanistan twice.

He said: “I’ve seen some of these injuries in real life. It’s not nice but it is part of the job, and I’m now able to pass that experience on to those who haven’t done a tour.

“The reservists here are as qualified as we are — it’s just that they have civilian jobs too.

"It’s important to do this kind of training with them because we would be working with them on future operations.”

The Burton Fell exercise was the first time the regiment’s regular and reserve soldiers had worked together on such a scale.

They will work side by side again on a similar exercise in Kenya later this year, after which they could be expected to deploy on operations together anywhere in the world.

Personnel spent days living and working under canvas deep within Cumbria’s Warcop military training area in temperatures as low as -2 °C.

They worked with actors, many of them amputees, and medical effects specialists to simulate some of the most traumatic injuries they might face on military operations.

Lt Col Aidy Meredith, the commanding officer of 3 Medical Regiment, said: “We’ve got some very competent reservist soldiers that will add to the competence we have within our regular soldiers, and one of the most satisfying things I’ve seen this week is how well they’ve all blended together.

"They’re all getting out to deliver healthcare on the ground.”

Half of 3 Medical Regiment’s personnel are reservists, and although its headquarters is in Preston, it draws staff from across UK.

It provides first aid, resuscitation and ambulance transport to front-line forces.

It has two sub-units of army reservists; 64 Squadron, which is based in Chorley, and 251 Squadron, based in Sunderland.