Captain Stu Deakin, aged 35, and Lieutenant Kirstie Main, aged 29, are both currently serving with 4 Regiment Royal Artillery in southern Afghanistan. The couple got engaged earlier this year and are planning to marry at Sandhurst in July 2008. They deployed to Afghanistan over two months ago and will not be returning home until April 2008.

Fortunately many of the couple's main wedding plans were arranged prior to deployment, although they did have the small matter of arranging their gift list, a task which had to be carried out over a satellite phone inside a Warrior Armoured Vehicle in the middle of the Helmand desert.

Kirstie, who was previously a nurse at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, also deployed on Operation TELIC as a staff nurse in the field hospital in Iraq. She is currently a Troop Commander responsible for the welfare of 30 soldiers:

"I find the living conditions fairly basic, however I never stop being amazed at how everyone improvises," she explained. "I really love being hands on, it's why I joined the Army."

Stu from Chelmsford, Essex, joined the Army in 2002 after teaching adventure training in the Lake District for three years before going backpacking in Nepal and Australia. He then lived in New Zealand for two years after hitching a ride on a yacht from Sydney. Stu is currently the Fire Support Team Commander responsible for coordinating the fire support required by the Warrior Company Right Flank Scots Guards.

Neither Kirstie or Stu can talk to each other except by radio as both of them are deployed in different locations out on the ground. However they have managed a few conversations all of which have had to end with "over" and more importantly they have provided some much needed entertainment to others who are said to pull up a chair to listen to Helmand's very own soap opera!

4 Regiment Royal Artillery is based in Osnabruck, Germany. In Afghanistan the unit is operating as part of 52 Infantry Brigade. British troops are in Afghanistan at the request of the Government of Afghanistan to help provide security, to extend the rule of law across the country, and to improve the quality of life for the people of Afghanistan.