SIX months ago, Davie McClellan and Vicky Callard were a picture of happiness on their wedding day – just months before they were due to be deployed as British soldiers in Afghanistan.

But last night, Corporal Callard was holding a bedside vigil for her husband as he lay seriously injured in hospital after risking his life to save a fallen comrade.

The sweethearts, who met at Catterick Garrison, in North Yorkshire, were married in the village church in Frosterley, Weardale, last September.

The couple made national headlines because they were both due to fly out to the war zone – he was with the 1st Battalion Scots Guards and she was a Red Cap in the Military Police.

Guardsman McClellan, 25, along with other members of his battalion, was called upon last month to take part in Operation Moshtarak, the major Allied offensive on insurgent strongholds in Helmand province.

Comrades say he was injured as he tried to protect his friend and fellow Glaswegian, Lance Sergeant David Walker, 36, from further gunfire when they came under attack in the Nad-e-Ali area.

L Sgt Walker later died in hospital and Gdsm McClellan received serious gunshot wounds to the chest.

Last night, as friends and well-wishers at churches across the North-East prepared to read prayers this weekend, his wife was by his side in a British hospital.

Cpl Callard, who is 23, was due to follow her husband to Afghanistan this month, having already done one tour of duty.

Her father, retired police officer David Callard, said: “Vicky will stay with her husband as long as it takes, but it looks like being a long, long road to recovery.

“Davie has a very bad chest wound, injuries to an arm and his heart has been bruised by a bullet.

“The Army’s welfare people have been truly wonderful through the whole of this crisis.

Vicky was staying with us when we were told Davie had been shot and they have cared for her through everything right from the start.”

It took 18 hours to fly Gdsm McClellan home to the UK, where he was taken to the military hospital at Selly Oak, Birmingham. But because of the extent of his injuries, he was transferred to intensive care at the city’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Last night, doctors said he was still critically ill but was showing hopeful signs.

It is not the first time he has been the victim of an insurgent attack. At Christmas, 2007, an armoured car he was travelling in was blown up by a roadside bomb.

He and other soldiers in the vehicle were knocked unconscious, but they escaped serious injury.

Back home in Weardale, where Cpl Callard grew up, the Reverend Brenda Bloomfield, a family friend who conducted the wedding service, said: “Both Davie and Vicky have to be admired because they knew their duties as soldiers only too well.

“We are all deeply shocked and saddened to hear about what has happened to Davie.

“But there has always got to be hope. They will be in our prayers every day.”

Mr Callard praised The Northern Echo’s wristband campaign in aid of members of 3 Rifles and their families.

“It is making an enormous contribution to helping people – particularly workingclass families who may not have very much – care for those who have been killed or injured in the conflict,” he said.

“It has already been immensely helpful to many families.”

His son, Douglas, is also being posted to Afghanistan from his base with the Parachute Regiment, in Colchester, Essex.

After their wedding in Frosterley, on September 5, Gdsm McClellan and Cpl Callard set up home in Catterick.

At the time, Cpl Callard, who is in the military police, said she had no fears about returning to Afghanistan, after serving for seven months in 2007.

She said: “It will be difficult being apart for so long, but that is my job.”

On news of their posting together to Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said: “It is very rare for married couples to be serving there together. If they had children, one would have to stay at home.”

■ The Northern Echo is supporting 3 Rifles’ Swift and Bold Wristband appeal, which raises money for the battalion’s injured soldiers and the families of soldiers killed in action.

Dozens more wristbands are due to arrive at The Northern Echo offices in Darlington and Bishop Auckland, and at the DLI Museum, in Durham City, early next week.