(12 Jan 2001) English/Nat
XFA
The 10th anniversary since the end of the Gulf War falls on Monday, but a number of British soldiers who served in the conflict will not be celebrating.
They are still campaigning for recognition of what has been termed Gulf War Syndrome.
The mysterious illness has been attributed to the death of more than 500 servicemen and women and has left thousands of others crippled.
Shaun Rusling takes a dozen different drugs to treat a catalogue of illnesses, from chronic fatigue and post-traumatic stress disorder to problems with the nervous system and depression.
He served in the Gulf War as a medic and says he inhaled depleted uranium while tending to the wounds of captured Iraqi soldiers brought from the front line of the Gulf War.
He went into the war a fit and healthy man and says he was afflicted by a range of physical and mental problems within weeks of his return.
His doctor at the hospital in Hull where he is treated says he is suffering from Gulf War Syndrome.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"It has devastated my life. They now accept that I am 90 percent disabled because of my illness and injuries from the Gulf War. It finished all forms of career and possibility of anything in the future for me. What I've got is what I have now and what I will be is all I'll be now and there will be no improvement - just sadly a gradual deterioration."
SUPER CAPTION: Shaun Rusling, Chairman, Gulf War Veterans Association
Rusling is chairman of an association which has brought Gulf War veterans together to unite them in a campaign for their illness to be recognised.
But in 10 years he says no real headway has been made in making the British government acknowledge their plight, despite recent moves to investigate illnesses of those involved in the Balkans conflict.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"It's now 10 years since the Gulf War finished and we returned. We now have 521 Gulf War veterans who have died since April 1991. We have over five-thousand troops that are ill and the Ministry of Defence and the U-K government have done nothing about it to give us the proper medical care that we should be getting and I am very, very disappointed."
SUPER CAPTION: Shaun Rusling, Chairman, Gulf War Veterans Association
Tracy Kirkby co-ordinates the benefits claims made by Gulf War veterans and she underlines the sense of despair felt by some of those who served their country.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Here in the U-K, Gulf War veterans have been treated no better from when they first left the Gulf War. Their healthcare has not improved at all and nor has the benefits situation. Gulf War veterans are finding themselves having to turn to doctors not knowing the reasons for their illnesses."
SUPER CAPTION: Tracy Kirkby, Welfare Officer, Gulf War Veterans Association
Another victim is Michael Burrows.
45 years old, he now walks painfully with the aid of crutches after suffering a fracture six months ago that mysteriously refused to heal.
It's just one of the many debilitating ailments he's experienced since returning from Saudi Arabia, where he served for three months as a medic during the ground war.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: Michael Burrows, Gulf War veteran
Burrows was proud of his role in the war, but now feels he's being treated as a second class citizen by those he went to the battleground for.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: Michael Burrows, Gulf War veteran
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