Nuclear test heroes finally get medals...after 65 years

THREE nuclear test veterans have finally been awarded a medal 65 years after their service Christmas Island during Britain's H-bomb blasts.

- Alan Smith and Ben Barry

on Terry Quinlan, 84, Ian Kury, 86, and Ray Porter, 88, wore just their fatigue shorts as they were exposed to the radiation from bombs 120 times more powerful than those dropped on Japan in 1945.

Ian and Ray were unharmed but Terry had cancer by the time he was 24. It was successfully treated but many other blast veterans died prematurely.

The heroes' service on the Pacific island in the 1950s was finally recognised with the Nuclear Test Veteran's Medal following years of campaigning.

Terry, of Leybourne, Kent, was just 18 and on the island for the first test explosion - the 1.8-megaton Grapple X bomb - on November 8, 1957. He remained there for four more blasts.