STEWART Hill hasn't seen the sun for months -- but he is still not in the dark when it comes to his beloved Blackburn Rovers.

Stewart, 32, is stationed in the frozen wastes of the southern hemisphere as part of the British Antarctic Survey.

Currently living in 24-hour darkness in the middle of the Antarctic winter, the light at the end of the tunnel for Stewart is a return to Blackburn, and of course Ewood Park, in October after a 12-month stint with the expedition.

The former pupil at St Augustine's High School, Billington, was employed to do the plumbing and general maintenance but he does more than fix burst pipes.

They all muck-in together and he takes turns making meals and among other duties keeping a look-out for fires.

Mum and dad Betty and Gordon Hill, of Stonehill Drive, Blackburn, will be waiting to welcome Stewart home and his return will mark their retirement as Stewart's personal football correspondents.

"Whenever there was a Rovers match we had to e-mail all the details to him and the other results so that he could keep track of their progress," said Gordon. "He took all his Rovers stuff with him when he joined the expedition last October and he was keen to get the picture of him in the shirt so that it can go in the programme at the beginning of the season. He had to pick his moment because for most of the time it is just too cold to step outside even for a few seconds wearing just a football shirt."

Mrs Hill said: "He gets us to e-mail the results and match reports because he has a limited number of times he can use the e-mail and he uses a lot of it to talk to his girlfriend Sam."

Stewart left St Augustine's when he was 16 with eight GCSEs and since then he has taken a number of courses from French to maintenance engineering.