AN RAF airman has been given the green light to deploy to Afghanistan just months after being diagnosed with heart problems.

Sgt Alex Ford discovered the condition during routine training when medics told him his left ventricle was contracting later than his right — a condition called Left Bundle Branch Block which can sometimes require a pacemaker.

But, following a nervous wait and strict training regime, Sgt Ford, 38, has been told he can leave his desk job at RAF Benson and head out to the war-torn country.

The avionics technician spoke of his excitement about making his first trip to Afghanistan.

He said: “I now just want to get on with the deployment. I’ve got five months of training to go through yet and I just want to get out there and get on with it.

“I know the training will be important so that I can get out there but you get to the stage where you just want to get on with it though.”

Father-of-three Sgt Ford, who has been based at Benson for two years, will deploy as part of the Military Stabilisation Support Group to help foster development in areas of combat.

He will be working on reconstruction projects and liaising with Afghan people.

Sgt Ford, who believes he has had the ventricular problem since childhood, said he was determined to prove medics wrong.

He said: “The medics said I’ve had a heart problem, but I didn’t think I did. I still have high blood pressure, however the medics seem to see one element of it and go in depth on it, which is their job of course.

“When I was training I knew that I could go running and train very hard down the gym so I knew there was nothing wrong with the heart but it was trying to get that across to the medics.

“When I got the all-clear from the medics it was ‘I told you so’.”

He said: “My health problems have not really made me any more wary or excited about deployment.

“You’re always thinking about whether your knees or back are up to it, but it’s just a case of getting on with it.

“You can give in to these things or you can face up to them.”

Sgt Ford admitted it would be hard to leave his family behind.

He said: “It’s going to be difficult, because I’ve got two families. I have almost grown-up children from a previous relationship that are about a hundred miles away.

“Then I have my partner and young daughter. It’s just complicated. Modern relationships are complicated, then there’s going off and possibly being incommunicado for days at a time.”

A few weeks ago, Sgt Ford spent the day ‘tweeting’ in the style of a 1940s airman to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

He launched his Twitter page earlier this year after being given permission by Ministry of Defence chiefs.

Charting the daily routine of life on an RAF base, the page already has more than 2,000 followers, including comedian Al Murray — the Pub Landlord.

Sgt Ford said: “The blogging has been an opportunity to get my mind around things.”