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Corporal Ian Booth at RAF Brize Norton

"You've got to get used to what you do here," says Ian who works in the RAF's Aeromedical Evacuation Control Centre (AECC) in Oxfordshire. "If you can't accept what may happen to people out there then you shouldn't be doing it. Sometimes it does get bad, but when you see who you've brought back to the UK then you feel proud to have been part of getting them here and making sure the troops are getting the best possible treatment." That's the bottom line for Ian - making sure that the people he's looking after are back home and being cared for in the blink of an eye, or at least as quickly as he and his team can manage.

Ian (left) and the team

Speaking to us from his base at RAF Brize Norton, Ian's just a 'phone call away from being called out to around 78 different countries across the world where British soldiers are serving. It's a 24/7, 365-days-a-year sort of job - but one that this former Castleford High School pupil is proud to do. And now he has another reason to be proud because the work he and the other members of his nine-strong team do has been recognised by the civilian emergency services too. In fact, Ian's fresh from a visit to the House of Commons to attend a ceremony where the team were given the Ambulance Service Institute's prestigious 'Control Staff' award.

In the last decade, Ian's sometimes been almost as far away from his hometown of Castleford as it's possible to imagine - from Sierra Leone to Iraq, Afghanistan to Bosnia and Kosovo as well as much closer to home with 'calls' to Northern Ireland. But wherever he and the team are working, the main thing on their mind is that they could prove to be lifesavers: "If we get a call and they say we've got a Critical Care Air Support patient it could mean that they've been ventilated or have lost their limbs. If we don't get them back within 24 hours then that could be the difference between life and death. Quite luckily for us, we have aircraft available and we'll get teams out and back within that timeframe - something we've not failed to do." In fact, in 2007 the AECC team were responsible for repatriating 4,300 patients from all over the world - not bad going!

The 'Control Staff' Award

Ian's family and friends back in Castleford are behind him all the way, too, wherever he might find himself in the world. He says his mum's really happy about the recognition he's received: "My mother's still in Castleford and she was quite tearful when I rang her up and said we'd got this award. Then, when I said that the BBC were contacting me, she was like, 'You'd best speak properly then!' My mum was happy. Also, a couple of years ago when I was out in Basra we were interviewed there and it was in the local paper [in Cas] and people were coming up to my mum and knocking on the door! People on the street are always asking how I'm doing because I don't get home often."