Woman’s Gulf War torment

4:06pm Friday 15th June 2007

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"I still have nightmares that I'm clearing up a soldier's brains after they've been blown out in combat."

This is the extent of the trauma still experienced by Corporal Marianna Proietti - 16 years after she returned from conflict in the Gulf.

�I don�t know why the Government keeps trying to brush it under the carpet�

- Marianna Proietti

The 37 year-old sufferer of Gulf War Syndrome decided to speak out after reading in The Press about the plight of fellow sufferer Terry Walker, who died earlier this month at the age of 48.

Marianna, who lives in Acomb, York, with her four children, said she felt let down by the Government, who she felt has not given Gulf veterans the support they deserved.

She said: "I don't know why the Government keeps trying to brush it under the carpet. At the end of the day we are all ill and we all have medical evidence to prove it.

"I just want them to take action so we get the help we deserve."

Marianna, who joined the Territorial Army in 1987, was the first woman soldier below the rank of officer to be sent to the Gulf as a member of the Royal Medical Army Corps. She arrived there in 1991 as a fit and healthy 20 year-old, but returned a broken soldier.

Marianna said: "When I came back it took me ages to accept that something was wrong, but I finally went to see a psychiatrist in 1994.

"Even though he was an army psychiatrist he refused to discuss anything about the Gulf. I was told I was suffering from post-natal depression and he put me on happy pills. I saw a lot of different people and kept telling them about all the nightmares I was having, but nobody would listen and I wasn't diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder until 1998."

Marianna, who is unable to work and receives a 60 per cent war pension, has also been diagnosed with severe Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and is about to undergo her fifth knee operation, after it was damaged in service.

She said she strongly believed her problems had been caused by exposure to inoculations and radiation in the Gulf, as well as the trauma of being at war.

Marianna is now hoping to set up a support group for anybody living in the York area who has returned from conflict.

She said: "I really believe that there is no better counsellor than somebody who has experienced it themselves. If we could meet up once a month or fortnight to talk over a cup of tea or coffee, I think it would help a lot of people."

Anybody interested can phone Marianna on 07789 122082 or email her at marianna8791@hotmail.com

The tragic story of ex-soldier Terry

Marianna got in touch with The Press after reading the story of former soldier Terry Walker, who was buried this week in his home village of Wheldrake, near York - a victim of Gulf War Syndrome.

Terry died at the age of 48 after a failed heart transplant operation, having suffered a heart attack earlier this year.

His parents, Ted and Hazel, firmly believe that Gulf War Syndrome was the ultimate root cause of his death, along with the stress caused by a 60 per cent cut in his war pension last Christmas.

The MoD has accepted that Terry's disability was related in some way to his service in the Gulf, but his family have been left without his war pension because the MoD does not believe Terry died of the injuries that his war pension had been allocated for.

The Press is conducting a campaign to bring justice to Terry's family.

We hope to ensure that his family get the full pension they are entitled to and which is their right.