Pant WI 'takes the biscuit'
Braving the icy conditions on 9 January, the ladies of Pant WI kicked off their 2025 programme of speakers with a presentation from Victoria Graham entitled ‘The Biscuit Club’.
Victoria is a former Lieutenant Commander in the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service and served with them for 23 years. In 2011, when the army requested the navy to look after the hospital in Afghanistan, Victoria and her colleagues were deployed to Camp Bastion for six and a half months.
Used to serving on a ship, the desert brought new challenges for them. Victoria explained the procedures that had to be followed by the medical teams to ensure a sterile environment in a theatre of war, and how operations and treatments were triaged. Victoria and her team dealt with life-changing injuries and the tragic loss of service personnel in the most demanding environment. However, her amusing talk reflected the camaraderie and teamwork amid these difficult circumstances and centred on the moment she asked her mum to not send chocolate out to her anymore as it just couldn’t survive in the searing heat.
