A SOLDIER from Denton will be part of the biggest deployment of troops from the north west to Afghanistan since the start of operations there in 2001.

It will be Private Stuart McLean’s first tour of duty in Afghanistan.

The 20-year-old soldier, a former pupil of St Thomas More RC High School on Town Lane, Denton, is a member of the fire support team of 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Cheshire), which is part of the 4th Mechanised Brigade.

He has served in Iraq previously in 2007.

"I just want to get over there, get the job done and make a difference," said Pte McLean, during training on Salisbury Plain.

"My family are anxious about me going there, but they have been through it before when I went to Iraq."

From the spring, the 4th Mechanised Brigade will become the army’s lead formation in Helmand province and is likely to be deployed there for at least six months.

Soldiers of the 4th Mechanised Brigade are currently training on Salisbury Plain, their last training exercise before deploying to Afghanistan.

It is the culmination of an extensive training package which goes back 18 months, during which members of the Mercian Regiment have trained in different climates, from the windswept Falklands to the arid terrain of Kenya in east Africa.

The regiment recruits its soldiers from the old county boundaries of Cheshire, south of the Rivers Tame and Mersey, including the Wirral.