ARMY medics celebrated their return from Afghanistan with a wartime dance in Bury.

More than 200 people jived the night away at the Castle Armoury on Friday at the party organised by the 207 Manchester Field Hospital.

The guests included doctors and nurses who have recently returned from the frontline after a four-month tour of duty.

Among them was Captain Katherine Wright, from Rossendale, who saw the dance as the first chance to relax and meet up with colleagues.

She said: “We hit the ground running and never stopped. It was a very busy and difficult tour, but we were really touched when total strangers from Bury took time out to send us Christmas cards and gifts. It meant so much to know that people were thinking of us.”

The dance had a 1940s theme and featured entertainment from Bury Air Cadet Band, the Lancashire Fusiliers Corps Of Drums and the Alan Bracewell Band.

The event raised £3,000, which will be donated to charities Help For Heroes and Broughton House, a residential home for ex-servicemen in Manchester Road, Bury.

Event organiser, Captain Geoff Hodgson, said: “It’s been great that everyone has come together to make this night such a success — 4 Lancs and the Bury Army Cadets have been particularly helpful.”

l A homecoming parade will be held in Bury on Sunday, March 6, to welcome back the soldiers. Bury Parish Church will hold a service at 11.45am, followed at 12.30pm by a parade from the church to the Fusilier Museum and then to the TA centre.