Hello everyone! I hope you are all well.

I’m feeling very happy at the moment. I’ve finally made it to the Defence School of Health Care Studies at Birmingham City University and am really enjoying my course (and the freedom).

After we graduated and were dismissed from basic training at RAF Halton midday on the 18th of April, I was driven up to my new accommodation in Birmingham. The room is quite small, but has everything I need and, more importantly, it is my room! After 10 months of sharing a barrack block with others, I can now play the music I want to play and turn the light off when I want to turn it off. It’s amazing!

It was very strange to begin with and I weirdly missed the noise a little. One of the first things I did was put some photos up on my wall of family and friends, and some familiar things around me to make it homely. There are four others in the flat with me and they are all in the Army. They have been really helpful getting me settled in and invite me to everything they do. I was a little worried about how I’d fit in as they all completed basic training together (and that gives you a relationship different from most other things I think), but as I said they’ve been great!

I have also had quite a few cups of tea and biscuits with the girls I originally started with back in June 2011. They seem really excited to have me back and have been so helpful with buses and showing me around! They also cooked for me for the first few nights before I’d had a chance to go shopping, which was really sweet.

There’s been lots of paperwork to catch up on and emails to be sent. I had a physiology lecture last Monday about the body’s blood circulation, which was so interesting and reminded me what I have been waiting so long to be doing!

I’ve had to spend a bit of time catching up on the lectures I missed. I’ve written lots of lovely colourful notes and am organising to do the practical sessions that I missed. But I’m not feeling overwhelmed by the catching up process (so I hope that means I haven’t missed too much).

It was quite sad to leave RAF Halton after all this time. So much has happened there and I have met so many people and done so many things. It has changed me a lot more than I ever thought it would (but I don’t suppose I thought I’d be there for as long as I was). But I’m staying in touch with some of the girls I was with. Most of them are still at Halton waiting to start their trade training, and they’re doing all sorts of exciting things – such as a trip in a Merlin helicopter, how lucky!

I would like to say thank you to everyone who has supported me through this, it has been so helpful to know there are people willing me to get through this and it has helped enormously.

Alex