Help for Heroes Speeches

Your Royal Highness, Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of the Trustees, Emma and all at Help for Heroes, I am delighted and honoured to welcome His Royal Highness Prince William to mark the official opening of the Help for Heroes Rehabilitation Complex. HRH Prince William and HRH Prince Harry have played a very personal part in the creation of this wonderful facility; as fundraisers with City Salute, as very public supporters of Help for Heroes and of course as Servicemen. Their support was key to the early success of H4H and we are extremely grateful for all they have done and continue to do for ‘the blokes’.

This facility will stand as a lasting tribute to the affection and support the people of Great Britain feel for those who serve in our Armed Forces. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people have done their bit to raise the funds for this complex and they continue to fund raise to provide further, much needed, support.

Emma and I are delighted to be here today to represent Help for Heroes, the charity that has become a phenomenon since it launched in October 2007. When we began, we had no great plan for what it might become. We are just a Mum and a Dad who felt helpless when we heard about the boys and girls who were fighting and being killed or wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. When we went to the hospital in Selly Oak during the summer of 2007 and met some of those young Servicemen, we just felt that something just had to be done.

Something HAS been done, something wonderful. All across the country, people have joined H4H, people who feel like we do, people who are not arguing about the rights and wrongs of war, people who just want to do something to help. We understand that we can’t prevent wars, we can’t stop our young men and women from being hurt, BUT, acting together, we CAN help them get better.

Help for Heroes was set up October 2007 out of a desire to provide support to those members of the armed forces that are injured in current conflicts. It was born out of an immense  respect for those men and women who put their lives in danger on a regular basis on our behalf. There was a basic belief, as there is now, that those who put themselves in that danger, and are unfortunate enough to be injured, deserve the very best level of support . . .

H4H was to be strictly non-political and non-critical. As the motivation was simply to help, it was better to concentrate on that simple message than to question the rights and wrongs of particular conflicts. This means that H4H gives everyone an opportunity to show support for the Armed Forces without having to comment on the conflicts in which they fight . . .

I wonder how many people sit down each evening in the kitchen, open a bottle of wine and share a Victor Meldrew moment, “ I can’t believe it… what has gone wrong, how can that happen, it is so bloody depressing, what can we do?” There are so many problems, so many issues and there is so little we can do that we might as well open a bottle of Merlot and watch the latest ‘cooking, location, fat but sexy with your clothes off’ show’…hopeless, so what is the point? . . .

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 . . .

Before I go any further let me make a couple of points.

Firstly, I am not a soldier.... I was a Rifleman 22 years ago and I am very proud of it. I have a son who is at Sandhurst and I am very proud of him too… but I am not a soldier. I am a civilian and as a cartoonist, this is way out of my normal life … so please make allowances for that. If I say 'soldiers' I mean Servicemen and women . . .

This is the first ‘despatch’ from a new organisation established to provide direct help to our soldiers, sailors and airmen who have been wounded in one of Britain’s current theatres of operation.

Although I am now a cartoonist, I was an army officer for ten years and know the true meaning of the newspaper headline; ‘One killed, four wounded, two critically’. However, nothing in my experience came close to what our servicemen and women are facing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Scores of casualties face long periods of recovery; some will have to cope with the consequences of their injuries for the rest of their lives. The very least we can do is make that process as easy as possible . . .