McLennan signed up with as a battle medical professional at 19, and was released on trip to Kosovo, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Iraq for 5 or 6 months at a time, providing frontline medical assistance to soldiers and civilians.
She was among the very first soldiers to get boots on the ground in Kabul in 2001. “I was young, in shape, increasing through the ranks and succeeding,” she states. “I began as a personal and left as a sergeant.”
However even as she accomplished on an expert level, McLennan’s psychological health was weakening, after a terrible Afghanistan trip in 2011. “I invested 6 months in fight on the frontline on foot patrols every day, stationed around numerous bases and checkpoints,” she states.” You head out of eviction for each patrol, and you believe, ‘Am I returning today?’
” On some patrols we seemed like sitting ducks. One time, I was contended about a foot far from my head, I might hear the rounds struck the tree behind me. I have actually never ever struck the ground so quickly. My adrenaline was through the roofing system.”
In 2012, McLennan was published back to the UK, to Aldershot and after that as a medical centre supervisor at MOD Chicksands in Bedfordshire. She was significantly distressed and withdrawn, and started misusing alcohol. “I was attempting to go to work, however every action I was taking in the early morning felt difficult. My mum observed I wasn’t myself.”
