A Worthing sailor has gone from the freezer into the fire, serving first in Antarctica and then being sent to the Gulf.

Alan Gibb, 28, has experienced temperatures ranging from minus 34C to more than 38C during recent service with the Royal Navy.

Alan set sail for an epic five-month voyage to the coldest place on earth, via South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, aboard the survey ship HMS Endurance.

During five months' steaming around the south Atlantic he withstood bone-chilling temperatures as he scanned the horizon for giant icebergs and endured mountainous waves which washed over the decks and froze.

Now he is sweltering in the Middle East aboard the Sandown class minehunter HMS Bangor, having left Portsmouth last September.

His mother Alice, who works at Whiteheads Fabrics in Hazelwood Close, East Worthing, said: "Alan is a Leading Operator Mechanic and has been in the Royal Navy for seven years.

"He was a pupil at St Andrews School in East Worthing and when he left, had a few jobs before deciding to join the Navy.

"Alan has been deployed on HMS Middleton, HMS Quorn and also HMS Endurance before joining HMS Bangor.

"He has done several tours of duty in the Mediterranean, visiting Spain, Italy, Greece, Romania, Transylvania and the pyramids in Egypt."

Alice, of Pages Lane, East Worthing, hopes he will be home at the beginning of June, after an arduous ten-month tour-of-duty.