Damned.mirror. co.uk

Worries about my five sons’ ill health

“YOU are about to experience something no one else in the world will ever see,” the senior army officer told a ship full of Royal Engineers.

Among them was Sapper Raymond Webber, 21, and when the ship docked at Christmas Island, he witnessed five nuclear bombs and was ordered to drive through the fallout with “two senior types” to collect heavilycontaminated equipment while wearing nothing but shorts and sandals.

Raymond, 81, of Gillingham, Kent, said: “When we left, there was a mobile decontamination point... and they had shower after shower because their readings kept showing radiation. They washed me down, too but we all put our uniforms back on...” Raymond now has osteoarthritis in his knees and neck, but worries about his five sons, all now in their 50s. The oldest was diagnosed with arthritis and cluster migraines. The second has arthritis, a deformed lung and lymphedema. Another son has arthritis and a thyroid condition. Third son Philip, 55, has chronic kidney disease.