“The motivation is the opportunity to work as part of a close team and learn some different skills and a lot of medics see it as their duty.

“What marks this trip out from Iraq for me is that I will feel a certain amount of guilt because of the worry it will cause to my dad and sister back in Birmingham.”

Camp Bastion is home to about 3,000 British soldiers.

And it emerged over the weekend that hundreds of extra troops from a Cyprus-based stand-by contingent had been called into action in Afghanistan by commanders.

The news was revealed after Sgt John Manuel, Corporal Marc Birch and Marine Damian Davies, who was from Telford in Shropshire, were killed by a suspected suicide bomber aged just 13 in Helmand on Friday afternoon.

Earlier on Friday, Lance Corporal Steven Fellows died from injuries suffered when an explosion hit his vehicle while on patrol in Sangin.

The 202 Field Hospital, based at the TA Centre in Dawberry Fields Road, Kings Heath, is made up of volunteers from Birmingham and across the Midlands.

Major Susie Reid, of 202 Field Hospital, said treating British troops wounded in battle would make up a large proportion of the work done by the medics, alongside more routine treatment for everyday illness and injury.

“We will be a small but very important part of military operation in Afghanistan,” she said.

“The vast majority haven’t been to Afghanistan before and this will provide a very challenging and different experience for them.”