A NORTH-EAST Marine is helping to build winter shelters to be used as clinics and classrooms in the earthquake-ravaged province of Kashmir, Pakistan.

Marine Ben Turner, of Hartlepool, is based in the town of Bagh as a Royal Marines engineer and is working with 59 Independent Commando Squadron Royal Engineers. Their mission is to build shelters in isolated mountain villages.

As commandos, they are trained to live and work in arduous winter and mountain conditions, and the troops are spending three to four days at a time in the isolated sites in tents designed for the arctic.

The men and materials are being transported up narrow mountain tracks by multi-terrain vehicles usually used for arctic Norway.

However, some villages are so inaccessible that the engineers have marched or been taken by helicopter.

The 28-year-old married three months ago, and has had to be away from his wife Michelle for their first Christmas.

He said: "I am really sorry for being away for my first Christmas married, but I am really proud of what we are doing. We are really doing some good here."