She was dubbed an angel who saved countless lives on the Afghan frontline.
Channing Day was a combat medic who was keen to share her invaluable expertise with her local comrades in Helmand.
But she died in a hail of bullets – the third British woman to die in Afghanistan – after a drug-abusing Afghan police officer went rogue, turning his rifle on coalition forces in a horror attack prompted by losing face.
The policeman, known as Naqib, and another off-duty Afghan killed Channing, 25, and Corporal David O’Connor, 27, in Helmand’s Nahr-e-Saraj district in 2012 as the pair went to train local police in first aid and how to spot roadside bombs.
Now, her mother Rosemary has been united in grief with Jane Duffy, Fife’s dog handler hero Liam Tasker’s mum, forming a deep friendship through the abyss of their huge loss.
‘There is always something missing’
Mum of four Rosemary, 59, said: “I joined a bereaved mothers group on Facebook, six months after Channing was killed. Jane was one of the first ones to welcome me on it and chat with me.
“I met Jane in person when we went to the Royal Albert Hall in London to the service of remembrance there. We met her and her hubby and we had a good chat there. We keep in touch over Facebook.
“Losing Channing changes the whole dynamics of your family. There is always something missing. She’s just not there.
“People think because it’s more than eight years on, you should be over it.
“I can remember a person saying to me about two years after Channing died, saying: ‘Do you still think about her?’
“You think ‘how can you ask that?’ People open their mouth and don’t think.”
Channing from Comber, Northern Ireland, was described by her family and comrades as a bright, bubbly young woman who never stopped smiling and who had an infectious laugh.
She was a talented sportswoman, playing football for Northern Ireland as well as ice hockey.
Channing also gained her qualification as a ski instructor through the Army and was a gymnastics champion.
In a previous tribute, decorated Army hero and author Doug Beattie described the role of medics like Channing as “angels” who saved lives every day in Afghanistan.
He said: “The soldiers look at these people in absolute awe.
“It doesn’t matter if they are male or female because when the bullets are flying, the explosions are happening all around and men are screaming for help, it is the medics you see running across the open space to deliver first aid, and Channing Day would have been one of those medics.”
‘Too many lives have been lost out there’
Gran Rosemary, a school cleaner, said it was long overdue for the troops to come home and stay home.
She said: “When she was killed, you think maybe she has made a bit of a difference – that helps you.
“But she made no difference, none of them made a difference with Afghanistan. There is no change in it.
“Troops should be brought home. They never learn. It was never our fight in the first place. All that waste of life. It is terrible.”
Rosemary has thrown herself into helping other soldiers as a way of honouring Channing.
She said: “Fundraising helped me cope. Between ourselves and our friends, we have raised about £80,000 for combat stress.
“My mission was that her mummy could help those soldiers that come back with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to try to save someone’s life here.
“It is only in this last year or so that I have come to terms with it.
“It was destroying me, I wasn’t sleeping or eating. Since the grandchildren have been born, I have tried to focus on them and that’s helped.”
Now, Rosemary takes comfort from sharing happy memories of Channing with her four grandchildren.
She points to the stars and tells them she is a real angel now, one who lives in Heaven with all the other heroes.
Scotland’s Forgotten War
Scotland’s Forgotten War is an in-depth investigation into one of the country’s longest running conflicts – the campaign in Afghanistan – and how it forever changed our local families and communities.
From Dundee, Angus and Fife to Aberdeen, Inverness and the Highlands, the combat thousands of miles away in Afghanistan has cast a long shadow over people’s lives in the last 20 years.
The Impact team
- Words by Stephen Stewart
- Design by Cheryl Livingstone
- Graphics by Roddie Reid
- Data visualisations by Lesley-Anne Kelly
- Photographs, video and audio by Jason Hedges, Mhairi Edwards, Drew Farrell, Blair Dingwall and Morven McIntyre.