Messages of Support

"Thank you very much indeed for your herculean efforts so far and to the continued outstanding commitment everyone at H4H has shown towards our Servicemen and women. It is quite literally, inspirational."

General Sir David Richards, Chief of the General Staff

"I thought I would write and let you know how personally grateful my family and I are. Our son Shane resides in Telford and is in 2 Rifles. During his first tour on the 4th of March this year, whilst on foot patrol near Sangin, Helmand assisting 3 Rifles, Shane knelt on a pressure pad whilst exposing an IED he had found. He was blown 60 feet through a mosque window! The lads with him thought he was "a goner" and whilst under fire from a Taliban sniper they had a tough time getting him to Camp Bastion Hospital. Incredibly Shane only suffered minor cuts and flash burns but unfortunately due to the blast had to have his spleen removed and will need long term medication. This was 10 days before his 21st birthday. Shane was in Selly Oak and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham for 6 days recovering and was back home in Telford on the 11th of March. Whilst visiting him in hospital we personally witnessed the help he received from H4H. On the 13th of March he managed a midnight walk up The Wrekin raising funds for H4H. At the top we celebrated his 21st Birthday! Shane is now back with his battalion and on St Georges Day, H4H took Shane and other injured Soldiers to a Rugby Match at Twickenham where he met the players and had a posh dinner. He had a great time! Keep up the good work, it is really appreciated!"

Mark and Tracey Borlase

"I just want to say a big thank you for all you are doing, I'm currently a dependant with a hubby on his first tour in Helmand, and the work you do is fantastic. I know that without charities like yours all the hard work and sacrifice our boys have made and are making would never truly be recognised and respected... in the eyes of those who do not see and understand the true role of the British Forces, thank you xx "

Anjie Hadnett

"We at 1st Welsh Guards salute and applaud you and your wonderful staff. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! "

Chris Benyon

"In loving memory of my husband Roy Muskett, he supported the charity in many ways and so the family felt it was befitting that instead of flowers from friends at the funeral, monies were collected that could be put to good use. The collection raised £350. Roy will be in our heart always. Thanks to everyone, Bessie"

More years ago than I care to remember, I had the best job in the world. I was the Platoon Commander of 9 Platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion The Royal Green Jackets. Many years later that Platoon still exists in but in the newly formed 2nd Battalion The Rifles. Last week 9 Platoon were ambushed in Sangin losing 4 men and suffering many casualties. The Platoon Commander, Alex Horsfall, was seriously wounded, losing an arm and a leg. Few of the men I commanded would still be serving and any that are would be in other places doing other jobs, but a sense of comradeship remains between old Rifleman and those who suffered this horrific attack.

I served in a quieter time on the streets of Belfast and in Northern Ireland’s border country. The men under my command were forgiving of my mistakes, unfailingly cheerful and generous in nature. Coming as they did from urban Britain, they used their inner-city savvyness to cope with the complexity of our role. I saw them defuse confrontation with a quiet dignity and switch to a professional aggression at the moment it was needed. I know that the same spirit exists in The Rifles today. I don’t know if I could have coped with such a tragedy but I do know that this is when the regimental family comes into its own. All ranks are equal in death and equal in how they are treated for their injuries. The Rifles will mourn their dead properly when they have time and they will rally round their injured, keeping them part of the family that is the Regiment. Until then they have to keep going. Their Commanding Officer Lt Colonel Rob Thompson put it in a way that was almost Kiplingesque:

“We turned to our right, saluted the fallen and the wounded, picked up our rifles and returned to the ramparts. I sensed each Rifleman tragically killed in action today standing behind us as we returned to our posts and we all knew that each one of those Riflemen would have wanted us to ‘crack on’.”

In Parliament we argue about our mission in Afghanistan. We talk about equipment and helicopters and the corruption in the Afghan Government. But at the centre of our concerns should always be the awesome bravery of those who step over the blood of their fallen comrades and just get on with the job. When 2 Rifles returned from a bloody tour in Iraq the Battalion Second-in-Command told me that if anyone doubts the so-called “playstation generation” they should see them in war. They are every bit as courageous as their great-grandparents were in more heroic times. Yes, as the bodies come home it is a time for sadness but I have also never been more proud to be a Rifleman.

Just a short message to wish everybody involved in Help for Heroes a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, please keep up the good work. A very well done on your award at the Milles. I shall be thinking of all those in theatre this Christmas and all those who have lost loved ones.

Hi, I wanted to wish you guys a Merry Christmas! I hope the building of the pool is going well. You guys do such good work helping British Service people, and even though I live in the U.S. I would like to keep supporting your organization. I would also like to send Christmas wishes to the British troops for all their great work. Keep up the good work guys and Happy New Year!

The Derbyshire and McCleary families support Help for Heroes
Is there a way I could send an email to the lads to wish them Happy New Year and to say how proud we are of all of them. If not could you give them our best wishes and tell them we are all thinking of them. Many thanks.

David & Sally support Help for Heroes
My husband has a nephew who has fought in Basra and now Afganistan with 42 Commando. We both feel so proud of him, he and all his comrades are so brave and are all doing a grand job. Our thoughts are with them all, and the families of the fallen.

I served 6 years in the RAF and unfortunately I got injured out and am disabled now. I know that you can't help me but im writing this to say thank you, on behalf of myself and my mates still serving, for doing what you do. It's fantastic knowing that people back home know what we do and why we do it and its good to be appreciated. I'm only 28 and I've got a veterans badge!! Given one wish in the world, I'd want to join again and defend my country. I'm proud to be an ex-Serviceman and I'm proud I've served queen and country. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I am an ex-RAF Man whose last posting was at the now closed JSMRU RAF Chessington. I saw first hand the work carried out by the RG's and Physios who worked with the wounded from the Falklands and Ireland. Your work is amazing and I am proud to wear my lapel pin. Please keep up the good work.

England Cricket Captain, Kevin Pieterson supports Help for Heroes

Our Servicemen and women are unsung heroes and the Help for Heroes challenge match at Twickenham is a great way of showing support for those injured Armed Service personnel. This is clearly a valuable cause and the England cricket team fully supports the outstanding work carried out by the Joint Services Rehabilitation Centre.
 
The Help for Heroes XV, managed by former England captain Phil de Glanville, will face an International XV managed by Ieuan Evans. The match aims to raise £1million for Help for Heroes and the care and rehabilitation of injured British Service personnel who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 

Keep up the (amazing) work! Believe me, after 12 years spent in Marketing and PR, and 20 years in general business, your website, image and success is far from amateur-ish. With TRHs now giving you such a fantastic endorsement, what more could you possibly ask for! The hardest steps are always the first and quite frankly, what you are providing is long overdue and puts our government to shame. Apart from the military, H4H will also strike a cord with a lot of decent-minded people in this country. So just go for it!

I met Bryn in the late 80s in Wolfenbuttel when he did some caricatures of mess members. I am very pleased to have an original. The charity is wonderful and as an old but still serving officer can I say that we are very very grateful for your support. The Help for Heroes theme has hit the mark in a way that others haven't . It has captured the imagination of the new generation to the extent that one of my young lads did the Belfast marathon in one of your shirts without getting shot at all!

Best wishes and please keep up the good work.

I am writing to you from myself and my entire family (some of whom were Servicemen in the 2 and 10 battalion of the parachute regiment) to say that we are proud that these men and women are willing to sacrifice everything to help their country and FINALLY there is something to help them back! I am an avid supporter of this charity and would like to wish all the team a huge thank you, as without them the state of of troops would look somewhat different. If my dad or uncles who served in the Parachute Regiment lost part of their lives while in the Army I would hope that they had something like this to help them. My father is extremely proud of his Regiment and equally of this charity. So to end, all we can say is thank you.

Part of the Remembrance Sunday sermon by Brigadier (Retired) David Innes in Winchester Cathedral

But the price is high – in the last 9 months the casualties in 2 battalions of The Rifles serving in Iraq include 7 killed on operations and 48 wounded. One of those who died recently was Major Paul Harding, a Winchester man, whose funeral took place here in the cathedral in July.  His Commanding Officer wrote this of him the day after he was killed:

"The Battalion has been hit hard by Paul’s death; the collective sense of grief is tangible. Paul embodied a life based on service to others; duty and self-sacrifice – the life of a soldier.  He chose this life and lived it with a passion; he died prematurely but he died doing what he loved.

We are not bowed or beaten by his loss.  Instead we stand a little taller today.  The resilience, determination, professionalism, decency, compassion, pride, good humour and fighting spirit that I see in the eyes of this Battalion - despite the losses we have suffered - these things are Paul’s legacy."

While we can be confident of the wonderful medical treatment the wounded receive, somehow there is insufficient to go round for the numbers requiring certain treatments.  Help for Heroes is a fund just started to raise money to build an orthopaedic swimming pool at Headley Court, the Services' main rehabilitation centre in the UK.  The initiative came from a former Green Jacket who, having visited some of the wounded and after seen their suffering, courage, modesty and their cheerfulness, wanted to help.  The motivation behind this will be recognisable to everyone here today who has ever had any kind of responsibility or authority over other people, on whatever scale. “It’s about the blokes” he said, "it’s about the men and women who are doing the business.  We, as individuals in authority at any level, are nothing without them – the people for whom we have a caring responsibility."

I am a serving soldier with the 4th Battalion The Rifles,and I am currently at Headley Court having treatment on my arm after being shot in Iraq in early July.

Thank you for all your support and a big thank you for everything you are trying to do for myself and all the other injured soldiers; words cannot describe how thankful we all are.

I spent months in Headley Court when my right lung was ripped from my body. Tip top place; I couldn't walk when I went in there, or use my right arm, but I left running 8 min BFTs and able to lift 20 Vodkas a night with my right arm.  A great cause.

The following letter is an extract from a serving soldier to another’s mother. It says it all.

I was shot down in a helicopter in 1978 and my two colleagues, including my CO, were killed.  I was unconscious for five weeks and managed to break my back, legs and elbow and suffer a number of internal injuries, but the support I received from the Army was extraordinary.  I couldn't walk for about six months, and was unable to make any sensible conversation for many weeks. But I want to assure you, perhaps more than anything else, that I too had a visitors' book by my bed but I can still remember now the people who came to see me and the genuine affection that they were showing, and that I wanted to give back to them too.

My eyes pointed in all directions for nearly a year, which Stephen's don't, and I still have double-vision now, thirty years later. But I was able to get through it because, like Stephen, I was young (24 years), I was very fit and I couldn't have asked for better medical attention.

After seven months or so, as I was beginning to walk (hobble!) again, I was sent to Headley Court where I spent the rest of the year.  Headley Court is absolutely brilliant at bringing badly injured Servicemen back into the military family and to introduce them to best remedial training there is, in a calm and and highly professional way.  By the time I left in January 1979, I, who a year before was VSI for weeks, could run and beat the best of them.

Richard Benyon, MP for Newbury:

On a recent visit to the military wing of Sellyoak Hospital in Birmingham, I met members of our local Regiment, the Rifles, who had been wounded in Iraq. It struck me that we in Britain are in danger of mirroring what happened in The USA at the time of Vietnam. At that time wounded Servicemen returned to a country that was tired of the war, had forgotten what they were fighting for and did not want to be reminded of it.

Whatever people think of the deployment of our troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, the British people have always held our Armed Forces in the highest esteem. People rather pompously refer to it as the "covenant" between the Armed Forces and the British people. Some would now suggest that that covenant has been broken. I have proof that it has not.

On Friday I arranged a visit to Newbury races for around 20 wounded soldiers. They had all received serious injuries from bullets or shrapnel. The racecourse management were superb and had laid on a VIP day out which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. At one point in the day the soldiers entered the parade ring and an announcement was made over the loud speaker as to who they were. With in an instant, sustained and prolonged applause echoed around the racecourse. I have every belief that the same would happen at Wembley or Lords.

What strikes me when I meet such people is how modest they are and how proud they are of the job they were doing when they were wounded. These men are modern day heroes. We cannot let them come to terms with their injuries behind closed doors. They have to know they are respected for being the best of the best and for the sacrifices they have made.