JILL Chadwick and Gareth Cheesdale are holding down full-time jobs but have still found time to join the anti-war protests near RAF Fairford.

Jill, 52, is a university lecturer and one of the original Greenham Common protesters and Gareth, 42, works for the Royal Mail in Gloucestershire.

They started off camping outside Gate Eight but were moved on by police and set up camp in the garden of the Axe and Compass in nearby Kempsford.

They say keeping the camp up and running for the last two-and-a-half weeks while holding down their jobs has been hard work, but are committed to their 28 Days of Peace protest.

They are self-sufficient, with an outdoor kitchen and a wigwam with its own wood burner.

Mr Cheesedale said: "It is very hard work at the Royal Mail but to be honest over the last few weeks work has been my relaxation because there is so much to do here.

"I believe this war will be illegal and at the last full moon we committed ourselves to a 28 days of peace camp. It is very hard going but that's what we are committed to so that's what we will do.

"It is difficult financially. I have given up a lot of overtime and living here adds 14 miles to my round trip to work.

"At first it was a case of Yankees go home but now the bombers are here it is Yankees stay here because when those bombers go the war will have started and a lot of people will be killed."

Many of the protesters have left their families to join the camp, but Jill managed to bring her family along with her.

As well as her partner Gareth her son, a student at Reading University, joined her for several days and is due back today and her parents have been visiting too.

"I have had a life long commitment to warrior for social justice," she said.

"Even when I was a child I felt so strongly about things and I was appalled with the way things were developing between Britain, the US and Iraq.

"I have dragged most of my family down here and it is hard to make sure my son concentrates on his studies because he feels so strongly about this.

"I think Saddam Hussein is evil, just like everybody else does, but there are many more evil dictators in the world who we ignore. But it is not the right of any state to decide what should happen to another country, the change must come from within."