{UAH} FROM SARGE TO SEX WORKER I served in Iraq and Afghanistan but the horrors of war turned me into an £120 an hour sex worker
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I served in Iraq and Afghanistan but the horrors of war turned me into an £120 an hour sex worker
A WAR hero traumatised by the horrors of combat is now working as a £120-an-hour escort.
Grace Parker, 35, served in Iraq and Afghanistan but was medically discharged in 2019 having suffered PTSD and depression.
She ended up being sectioned, spent time homeless and now works as a "bi-curious" escort selling sex from her bedsit.
And Grace insists that not enough is being done to help war veterans who fall on hard times due to PTSD and other mental health problems.
She said: "I don't blame anybody. It's my own poor choices. But I was bitter towards the Army when I was discharged.
"I felt I was just a number, and all the good I did was forgotten. There are not many women in the Royal Engineers and I'd achieved so much, but it felt like nothing.
"I nodded along to my discharge because I was on medication. I was depressed.
"I was off sick for a year so there should be something better in place for soldiers during that time, which would perhaps have stopped me being sectioned."
Grace, of Sheffield, spent 14 years in the Army after being voted best recruit.
She also got a commendation for outstanding work with the Royal Engineers on Operation Shader in Iraq.
She told The Sun: "My mum was in the RAF, and dad and three brothers in the Army, so it's no surprise I ended up with a military career.
"I got in trouble and was nearly sent to prison as a teen."
Trying to get her life back on track, Grace joined up aged 19.
The divorcee said: "I didn't look back and joined the Royal Engineers as a sapper."
Grace was named best recruit at Pirbright, Surrey, then spent five years as a signaller in Germany and was promoted to lance-corporal.
In 2009, she spent six months in Afghanistan as a combat engineer, with the camp being attacked regularly by jihadists.
There was then another spell in Germany followed by tours of the Falklands and Canada.
Grace said: "Life was great. I was then posted to Warminster in Wiltshire and was promoted to corporal — a section commander. I was running military exercises on Salisbury Plain."
In 2015, she joined 22 Engineer regiment. In Iraq, Grace got a joint commander's commendation for outstanding service.
She went on: "Back home, I was promoted to sergeant but things soon went downhill."
Grace got stressed and was signed off sick, starting therapy.
Amid nightmares about what she saw in Afghanistan and Iraq, she was diagnosed with PTSD and bipolar.
She added: "The Army did its best but it wasn't great. I was sent home. I was sectioned in 2019. I was given a full honourable medical discharge."
Her marriage to a serviceman fell apart and Grace spent time in The Priory.
She got a job in a hotel and studied nursing.
But during Covid, a move to her mum's in Bristol did not work out and she ended up in a Sheffield hostel.
Grace finally got a council bedsit in February.
She said: "I was struggling and didn't know what to do.
"I needed money and escorting was the answer. I was on a dating site when a man asked if I was interested in selling services. I said yes.
"I do it to get by. But I'm trying to look to the future now. I'd like to go to university. I'm saving to go travelling."
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