But after a testing year in which one has been dodging rockets in Iraq, and the other has fought a battle with cancer, Cromford mates Roy Slack and Robert Cope have something to celebrate.

They have both been promoted from Private to Lance Corporal and are now itching to get back into action.
Roy, 29, grew up two doors down from Robert, 25, on Rose End Avenue.

It was at the Wirksworth Cadet Group that they decided the army was for them.

Roy is now an ambulance driver with the 1st Close Medical Regiment in Al Amarah, Iraq.

He flew back out on Sunday to an area thought of as one of the most dangerous to British troops.

"We get shot at with mortars and rockets every week on our camp. It is a nice place but there is a lot of trouble."

Despite this, Roy says he has had a good reaction from the Iraqi people.

"We are working with the Iraqi army and the police and they do seem pleased to have us there."

But Robert, who is with the 13th Air Assault at Colchester Garrison, has had an equally stressful time.

He was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma in his neck last and has been making trips to Weston Park Hospital in Sheffield every fortnight for eight months for radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

"The doctors were quite surprised at how well I coped with the treatment but they put it down to the training I've had in the army.

"They said any other 25 year old would have really suffered," he says.

Robert's last check-up confirmed the treatment has been successful, and he is hoping to return to Colchester later this year.

Robert's mother Jane speaks for herself and Roy's mother too when she beams: "We're just so proud of them. Their teachers said they would never achieve anything and they've proved them wrong."