9:41am Thursday 18th October 2007
BRYN Parry, the Downton cartoonist who has set up a special charity, Help for Heroes (H4H) to help wounded servicemen and women, said at Tidworth that more than £350,000 had been raised in the first two weeks alone.
As reported in last week's Journal, the charity's first task is to raise at least £5m to build a new gymnasium and swimming pool complex at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation flagship centre at Headley Court in Surrey.
Bryn and his wife, Emma, were visiting a special display in Salisbury of a Field Hospital, as it would be operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Among the other guests of Maj Gen Richard Shirreff, GOC of Bulford-based 3 (UK) Division, were 30 medical staff and trainees from the military wing of Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, which is the first port of call for most casualties on their arrival back in this country.
Bryn said they would be running the charity very cheaply to ensure money collected went to help the wounded. "We have volunteers in an office in Tidworth which has been given to us. The computers have been given to us, the telephones have been given to us and half a million leaflets have been given to us.
"Which means that when we've raised our money we can pass it over to Headley Court and then move on to other projects," he said.
Answering criticism that charities should not have to fill gaps left in the care of wounded servicemen and women, Bryn said: "There's never enough money in any part of the government's programmes. Here the MoD has a series of priorities and when you go to Headley Court you see fantastic departments that have become the absolute necessities. The swimming pool is the next one down the list, which they haven't been able to afford.
"At the moment they are taking amputees to the public swimming pool in Leatherhead, which I don't think is acceptable.
"So I'm very comfortable with the idea of privately raised charity money working alongside public money to speed up the provision of a much-needed facility which wouldn't otherwise exist or would take a lot longer to provide. I want to see our guys get the very best and if I do that by raising a lot of money very quickly, then that's good."
H4H is planning a major fundraising event next year, which Bryn hopes will see thousands of cyclists riding into the Cenotaph in central London.
"First we need 300 riders to join us for a ride through the battlefields of northern France linking the 100 Years War with the First and Second World Wars," he said.
The ride will begin at HMS Victory in Portsmouth on May 26, with a fly past by the Red Arrows. After crossing the Channel in HMS Bulwark a landing ship, then get into landing craft and storm onto Sword Beach in Normandy "We'll then hop on to our cycles and we then ride for five days through all the battlefields of northern France finishing in Calais on May 31.
Next day, the 300 will travel by ferry and coach to Blackheath where they will be joined by numerous other groups from all over the country and will cycle as one mass into central London.
"There could be thousands of us," said Bryn. "There are enough people out there to respond to the call. There will definitely be 300 on our ride through France, which is going to be over-subscribed very quickly," said Bryn.
Details about the Big Battlefield Bike Ride are available fromH4H at Unit 6, Aspire Business Centre, Ordnance Road, Tidworth Wilts, SP9 7QD. Tel 0845 6731760 or on www.helpforheroes.org.uk.
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