The human cost of the Afghan War

I am a 21 year old woman and my life was very happy and full of love. This was before a terrible...experience occurred...I try my hardest to keep up with understanding the background to your decisions on Afghanistan...

I want to explain my background so maybe you can relate in some way to why I am very frustrated with you, and maybe you will understand we are people not just numbers...I left school after my GCSEs and I started to think about serving my country and working for the British Army. I enrolled onto a college course and got my diplomas.

This is where I met Kyle Adams. We had such a great connection we would bring out the best in each other. We knew in our hearts we would always be together and made plans for the future...I later left the college, however my dear Kyle joined up as a paratrooper and began his gruelling training...

We started to plan our lives in detail...We were to move in with each other...We were to have a dog for the first few years and then he would ask my father for permission to marry. Kyle wanted to wear his army uniform on our wedding day and we had our first dance song (savage gardens — truly, madly, deeply...We were to have three children; our first would hopefully have been a boy to carry on the family name for the Adams. His name was to be Cole Adams and he was going to be a cricketer as Kyle loved his cricket and his  son would surely bowl out South Africa...

Kyle was then sent to Afghanistan on the 22nd May 2009. He loved his job and was proud of what he had become — we were all very proud of him...Kyle was killed in action on the 6th August 2009 working for the paratrooper regiment when his Jackal vehicle ran over an IED bomb.

We met our cold dead hero at RAF Lytham, on Thursday, 20th August 2009, and what a day that was! We met a lot of people and I was pleased to know that they felt enough emotion to turn up and show some respect for the four fallen men that had flown home that day...I think I speak for all British people when I say I just hope it doesn't cost more lives.

Charlene Barry's story was read to Parliament on 15th October 2009 by Paul Flynn MP, who also sent  a copy of the whole letter from which this is extracted to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

A eulogy for and picture of Private Kyle Adams can be found here