Help for Heroes - Something quite remarkable

Dear All,

There is something quite remarkable going on.

As you may know, Emma and I wanted to help the wounded coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. We didn’t know much about what was happening but, like many people, we thought we would like to help in some way; nothing more than that. We had no agenda, no point to make; we simply wanted to help.

We thought it might be a good idea if we organised a sponsored bike ride and gave the proceeds to the wounded. We thought it would be as simple as that; go on a ride, raise some money, give it over, feel good and go back to one’s normal life. Wrong, it does not work like that. Over the last three months we have had to jump so many hurdles, meet so many people and listen to so many problems, just to do something as simple as raise and give some money to where it is needed.

We asked how we may help and were told by General Sir Richard Dannatt, that we could raise money to help build an urgently needed swimming pool at Headley Court, the tri service rehabilitation centre at Leatherhead. It sounded good to us, a single, simple task that everyone could understand, especially when one hears that our wounded are currently being bussed to the public pool. Fine, raise some money, pay for a pool and move on; easy.

Nothing in life, it seems, is that simple.

There have been evenings when we have questioned why we are doing this, times when the sheer bureaucracy has baffled us; times when we have found it staggering that it is so difficult to achieve something that is good and needed and achievable. Times when we have really questioned what we were doing, even began to doubt our sanity; how could we have been so stupid to think we might actually make a difference; we must have been, at worse mad, at best ridiculously naïve. Teeth clenchingly, hair tearingly frustrating; we must be mad to think that we could wade through the treacle that glues the establishment... And then.

And then things began to happen; great things. We went to meetings that began with everyone peering over their glasses as they went through the lists of problems and obstacles but ended with people pushing back their chairs, grinning and saying ‘ we can actually do this, this really could work!’ Hurdles began to be jumped, problems solved and obstacles cleared. A palpable current began to flow, a wave of cooperation, a desire to cut through the crap and get things done, to be part of something really wonderful, a force for good.

We have seen people who were weary from years of working within the system start to shed their straightjackets and start to remember what it is like to have fun; to be part of something really good. People began to say ‘lets make this work’ rather than ‘I’m sorry but there are guidelines that have to be followed; rules that must be obeyed’. Suddenly we were all part of a team united in a common cause, we all wanted to get the best for our blokes.

It’s infectious.. this feeling, this crazy, naïve, fun but ridiculously addictive desire to make this work, to make a difference. People are enjoying catching this virus, this desire to help, to do something really great, to buck the system.

People are basically good, decent and caring. Sure, we get bound up in our lives, swept along with the current of jobs, families, stress, hassles. We have not become bad; we are just busy. Its not that we don’t care ; it’s just that life goes on and we are rushed off our feet. We get the children off to school, go to work, answer the emails, deal with all the stuff, come home, flop in front of the telly and then get up and do it all over again. There is too much happening in our lives for us to deal with everything, let alone worry about what is going on in the world.

We are busy, busy but then we have a moment when we stop and really focus. We hear something that makes us think, touches us, connects us to the world we live in. For me and Emma it was meeting the wounded at Selly Oak. We walked into a ward of thirty or so soldiers, sitting or lying on their beds, in T shirts and boxers and they were wounded. They were not lying there under white sheets like in the movies, they were on top of the bedclothes and they were missing arms and legs. One man was missing both his legs and his neck was in a brace. He was consoling the son of another soldier who had died in the incident in which he had nearly died; it was profoundly moving.

We came home determined to do something, difficult not to want to do something when you meet these people who are so brave, modest and humorous.. and I think anyone who meets them is affected.

Most people don’t visit the wounded, have not talked to young men who have fought for their lives or risked everything to get to their mate in a minefield; its not their fault, its just beyond what they do. Visiting the wounded is just not part of most of our lives.

Then something comes along that makes us think, something like Help for Heroes, something that makes us stop and take stock. Something that brings out the best in us, something that we can do, something that we can be a part of. Somebody decides to do something good and then communicates that; the word spreads and things start to change. People get involved, people start to want to be apart of it all, they are caught up in it.

That is what is happening with Help for Heroes. Something truly wonderful is going on, the press has picked up on it, people are spreading the word, something wonderful is happening and we are part of it. Nothing surprises me and nothing is impossible. This is rare and we are part of something really good, something that does not happen everyday, a uniting, unstoppable and new force, a wave that is carrying us along. Let us ride it, ask others to join us and together make a difference.