A PROUD mother has today paid tribute to her “brave” daughter who has returned home from Afghanistan after spending two-and-a-half months serving there with the Royal Air Force.

A PROUD mother has today paid tribute to her “brave” daughter who has returned home from Afghanistan after spending two-and-a-half months serving there with the Royal Air Force.

Alexandra Reynolds, 21, arrived back in Britain last week and was reunited with her family in Ipswich on Sunday .

She is spending a week back in England before returning back to her role as a senior clerk in the administration department in Kandahar.

Today, her mum Suzie Reynolds said she thought her daughter deserved to be recognised for her hard work.

She said: “She has been in Afghanistan since July making sure that orders get sent to the correct places, cargo of whatever is needed gets ordered and dispatched to the people who need it, correspondence is collected and delivered on time and sent on to the bases that need it.

“She has had just as bad a time as everybody else but does her job no matter what.

“She is scared a lot of the time wondering if she will make it home and is losing sleep a lot of the time because of the conflict out there. She tries to keep a cheery air about her though to make everybody else feel better.”

Alexandra's mum lives in Cardiff Avenue, Maidenhall with her 12-year-old daughter Sydney who also wants to join the RAF.

It is becoming something of a family tradition as the girls' 27-year-old brother Aaron also served with the air force.

Alexandra, who joined the RAF when she was 16, said she was enjoying her work.

She added: “You do feel like you are helping. You can see the difference that we are making which a lot of people back home can't see.

“It is safer now for the people out in the villages although there is fighting going on.”

Alexandra, a senior aircraftwoman, had some delays getting home because her flight had to back an impromptu stop in Turkey because of technical problems.