Dear H4H supporter,

I wrote to you two weeks ago to break the news of the new Personnel Recovery Centres that our funding will help build in Edinburgh, Colchester, Catterick and Tidworth. We will also be announcing in March how we propose to support the Individual Recovery Plans of the Service personnel who will leave through injury. The next fundraising effort will be absolutely vital for our boys and girls if they are to get the best launch back into the next phase of their lives.

Reaching £40m in 28 months was quite literally staggering and we have been working so hard at H4H HQ and in the counties that I think it almost passed us by. We have not yet had time to celebrate or appreciate what it means. It is amazing what you have achieved and you must all take a moment to sit back and say ‘wow, £40m raised, that’s £47,000 a day, £34m granted so far; that is amazing!’ You have been, and are part of, something truly inspirational, a national movement that has literally made its mark on history. Not bad for a bunch of amateurs!

Sometimes, we are so focused, so determined, so passionate about our appeal that we might think we are the only ones involved in this battle to support the blokes, the men and women of the Armed Forces, well, we are not. Charities such as SSAFA- Forces Help have been at this for 125 years, The Royal British Legion for nearly 90, The ABF- The Soldier’s Charity for 66 and many more have been fundraising, and delivering, support to our Servicemen and women for generations and long may that continue. We may be one of the ‘new kids on the block’ but we are, and must be, part of a team if we are to deliver the very best to our blokes.

Similarly, the men and women who are being wounded today are not the only Heroes who need our support. We focus on the current wounded and I am sure that has helped bring their generation in to help support their contemporaries, their classmates, that is how it should be. This is, as all wars are, a young people’s war, they do the fighting, so it is right that young people support them. However, we must remember and keep supporting them as they become the older generation, our Veterans. Our support today must continue for their whole lives; we owe them that.

We can only achieve that long-term support for our men and women by working together seamlessly with the existing charities. If the road to recovery is a path, then all of our great Service Charities are the paving stones that fit alongside each other to help provide the support and care that our blokes need for life. It is wonderful that The Royal British Legion has committed £20m to operate the Recovery Centres for the next 10 years, that SSAFA-Forces Help provide such vital support to the families, especially at their Norton Relative’s Houses and we are delighted that ABF- The Soldiers Charity will be administering the H4H funding for the Individual Recovery Plans. We are working closely with the three Services and their charities, many of whom we have helped with funds or, like Erskine, are project partners. This is teamwork at its best and I ask you to ensure that this continues at every level. We may well be today’s ‘new kids’ but the existing charities are the ‘grown ups’ and they deserve our support and respect. Please work closely and in friendship with your local representatives of all the Service Charities. We are all part of a great team, doing a great job.

Someone said to me the other day that because H4H calls our wounded ‘Heroes’ does that mean that if you are not wounded you are not a Hero? No and lets get this straight, we consider anyone who joins the Armed Forces, knowing that they may be asked to risk their lives as part of their job, to be heroes, wounded or not. That applies to the current Servicemen and women as it does to all who have served before; you are all Heroes in our eyes and you all deserve the very best.

£40m is an extraordinary achievement but it is a marker along what needs to be a very long road. We are by no means there yet but we are part of something that is making a real difference to the lives of our wounded and we must ensure that our support, in partnership with others, continues for life.

Thank you all for what you are doing, whether you are one of the team at Tidworth or Downton, a volunteer, a fundraiser or donor, you are are all a critical part of this wonderful national show of support and affection for our Armed Forces; long may it continue.

Thank you,

Bryn

Message From A H4H County Co-ordinator:

Pip Hughes, our County Coordinator for North Wales, writes this month’s piece on his experience of heading up a county:

Having been asked to write an article to appear in our March newsletter to you all was rather fitting as we in Wales celebrated St David’s Day on March 1st and my former Regiment, The Royal Welsh Fusiliers, are currently deployed on Operations in Afghanistan. So to all the boys serving out there “and St David’s”.

I joined the team at H4H in October 2007, coordinating Wales, Merseyside and Cheshire. That was at a time when H4H was really finding its feet but we had the enormous task of raising £8 million for a Hydro Therapy Pool at Headley Court. Luckily, I knew Bryn Parry and with him being a Welshman I joined his team.

Not many people recall the difficult days that we all endured when H4H was started. The endless hours that Bryn and Emma devoted to the charity that they had formed and the nights we all spent replying to emails and answering phone calls. We were all doing this as well as looking after our day jobs and trying to have a normal family life.

Well, those difficult early days have paid off. Today, we are part of the most successful and talked about charity in current times. That is partly due to Bryn and his team for their guidance but it is also down to all those Volunteer County Coordinators that keep the wheels on this machine turning. But let us not forget that we do this for a reason and that is to support our injured Servicemen and women that have sacrificed much more in life than any of us would ever have been asked to do.

As a former Soldier myself, being part of H4H has been one of the most rewarding things that I have had the pleasure to be involved with. Knowing that every pound raised goes to the soldiers and that the H4H shop covers our running costs is something that we can all be very proud of.

However we must also not forget those that support us and help us raise the money that we need to make Help for Heroes what it is today. Therefore to the army of wristband-wearing Help for Heroes supporters, I would like to thank you all. Keep supporting us and all our brave soldiers. Don’t stop. Enjoy the events that you organise and keep on doing them. Our soldiers haven’t stopped fighting for us so don’t stop raising money for them! We have a mountain to climb and we’re not at the summit yet!

Finally I would like to say a huge thank you to the team at Tidworth that make our lives as Volunteer Coordinators so much easier. Mark Elliott at the helm deserves great recognition for what he has done. Belinda Mitchell, my boss, for always being there when you’re in a crisis, Amanda Davies who counts in the money every day, Claire Salisbury who runs our shop and the rest of the team.

To all of you that have taken the time to read this I want to end as Simon Cowell said:

“You make me proud to be British”.

Good luck to you all and God bless.