ARMY wife Nikki Bannister takes comfort in the fact that although he is 6,000 miles away, her husband is able to see their son's smiling face on his first birthday.

Fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, Lance Corporal Mat Bannister was not able to be with little Riley to share the milestone.

However, thanks to the Derby Telegraph, Mat, of Alvaston, can see pictures of his son enjoying his party by visiting the section of our website dedicated to keeping people in touch with their loved ones on duty.

On the site, set up for members of the 2nd Battalion Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters), scores of other partners and friends log on to keep up to date with the soldiers' progress.

Nikki, 27, who posted the pictures after Riley's birthday on Thursday, said the site was a lifeline.

She said: "I tend to check on it every couple of days. It is great because often Mat does not have time to log on to his e-mail account but if he has a few seconds to go on the internet then he can have a look at the messages I have posted."

Major Jez Jerome, who is co-ordinating information coming back from Afghanistan to the Derby Telegraph, said the troops log on every day.

He said: "There are two great things about the site.

"The first is that because it is instant, everyone can log on and read news and messages from back home that are posted straightaway, which is vital for maintaining contact with friends and family.

"Secondly, there has been a steep change in the public perception of what we do out there, both as a battalion and as the British Army, and we can be slow to pick up on it.

"When the boys log on to the site they not only see messages from friends and family back home but from people who live in their city or town.

"To have that almost secondary support from people back home is a major boost, both to an individual soldier and for the battalion's morale."

The dedicated Woofers section is just part of the Derby Telegraph's ever-expanding website, which is viewed by 23,000 people daily.

Slideshows, audio and readers polls are some of the features that can be found on there and keep people logging on.

Picture editor Victoria Wilcox said the website was a great way to showcase even more images captured by Derby Telegraph photographers.

She said: "We always do a slideshow of pictures for big events which compliments the coverage in the paper. We get a chance to publish many more photographs than we previously could."

There is also a button dedicated to a section of readers' pictures. Victoria said: "Readers send us their pictures of scenic Derbyshire for the letters page and they are all featured on the opinion photos section.

"There is also a section called Editor's Choice, where I pick a handful of my favourite pictures which show passion and creativity but may not have appeared in the paper.

"We get great feedback from our readers."

Users can also keep up to date with the latest DCFC news from a dedicated Rams site, therams.co.uk.

Since 2008, fans have been able to get live text commentary of all Derby County's games from Derby Telegraph sports journalists as the action happens.

The match centre is used by people from more than 40 countries across the world, with fans from as far afield as New Zealand, the US, Bermuda, Russia and the Middle East eagerly logging on.

Thisisderbyshire.co.uk's dedicated nostalgia section is also popular with people logging on in their droves.

The site is packed full of articles about our county's heritage and the people who have made it so great.

Each day, it is updated with material created by Telegraph writers but one of the best things about bygonederbyshire.co.uk is that readers help it become the definitive archive of life in the county by adding their own stories and pictures or commenting on those contributed by others.

Bygones editor Sue Williams said: "It is so popular because people like reading about themselves and it is contributor led.

"It also covers all aspect of life, from work, leisure, football and the war years."