Newcastle Evening Chronicle reporter Beth Neil got a taste of life as a war correspondent when she joined 100 Royal Marines Reservists at a training exercise.

Beth, (24), was invited to spend the weekend with the Reservists who fought for 48 hours with little or no sleep.

She said: “I was really keen to do it.

“I was playing the role of war correspondent so I trailed and followed them around having to keep ducking under hedges and things but I just kept giving away their position.”

The Reservists, who are volunteers, train two nights a week and every other weekend.

Beth said: “They took it deadly seriously and we really up for it. It’s as close as they will get to war without actually being sent away.

“I’ve got no idea why they do it! It is sheer dedication – they think of it as a challenge and the chance to push their bodies to the peak of physical fitness.”

Beth’s feature appeared as a full-colour, double-page spread in the Chronicle.

She said: “They were delighted with the piece. They are on a recruitment drive at the moment so it’s good publicity for them.

“I had no idea how I was going to write it until I’d been there.

“In the end it was a general feature about the Reservists and a description of the action. Some quite nice stories came out of it from a human interest point of view.”

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