A NURSE who treated seriously wounded soldiers and innocent children while under fire in war-torn Afghanistan has been awarded a medal.

Mike Gallagher witnessed deaths and horrific injuries, including children who needed limbs amputated, as he worked to save lives in “hazardous and difficult conditions”.

Now Mr Gallagher, who has worked at The Royal Bolton Hospital since 2000, has been awarded a medal by the Ministry of Defence.

The 47-year-old, who lives in Heaton, was selected to take part in Operation Herrick on April 14, last year, as part of the NHS support to operations scheme, for four months.

Mr Gallagher said the most difficult part was caring for innocent Afghan children caught up in the conflict.

The youngest he remembers treating was a little girl who had been rushed to the intensive care unit at the field hospital in Camp Bastion.

Mr Gallagher, who served in the Territorial Army as a medic from 1982 to 1995, said: “She was three and had been shot.

“She was ventilated and underwent surgery to remove the bullet and we repaired the damage.”

The youngster pulled through but Mr Gallagher said many others, both children and adults, lost their lives.

On a daily basis he treated casualties with multiple traumatic injuries, often caused by bomb blasts and improvised explosive devices, as well as gunshot wounds.

The team, part of the Royal Navy’s UK Joint Force Medical Group, also dealt with patients who had been hurt in accidents and crashes.

Mr Gallagher said: “There’s a big support network. Everybody looks after everybody else.

“It was important you knew family were supporting you back home. Regular communication was key to it.”

Mr Gallagher worked up to 80 hours every week, in sweltering 53 degrees Celsius temperatures, and endured threats to his own safety.

He said: “We were subjected to a rocket attack on at least two occasions I can remember. It was pretty scary.

“You just try and find hard cover, put your helmet and body armour on.

“There were 11 British fatalities while I was out there.”

Mr Gallagher decided to train to become a nurse after witnessing the care his father, John Gordon, received at the hospital before his death from cancer in 1996.

Until then, he had worked as an engineer for British Turntable, off Derby Street, for 11-and-a-half years.

He said: “I saw the way he was looked after, the care and the compassion.

“I just felt like it was an opportunity to give something back. It seemed very worthwhile.”

Comparing working in Afghanistan to back home, he said: “It’s totally different. Some of the injuries, you would never see here in a career of nursing in the UK.”

His proud wife of 20 years, Cath Gallager, aged 47, said at times she endured an anxious wait of days to hear from her husband.

This was usually because someone had been killed or seriously injured and “Operation Minimise” had been declared, meaning telephone and internet communication had been suspended.

Hospital chief executive Lesley Doherty presented Mr Gallagher with his medal in a ceremony at the hospital on Wednesday.