Almost 80,000 Armed Forces veterans in Hampshire now have access to Help for Heroes’ support services – and the charity has taken to public transport to get the message out to them.

For 15 years, the nationwide charity, which has its head office in Salisbury, has supported veterans – and their families – by giving life-changing support, no matter when or where they served.

But the charity said it knows the veterans it currently supports are just a fraction of the former military personnel who are struggling to live well.

Part of its drive to encourage more veterans to come forward is a campaign involving advertisements on buses and in various media across Hampshire, highlighting what the charity has labelled ‘The Veterans War’: forgotten by many, but very real for them – as many veterans and their families continue to struggle with painful injuries, psychological trauma, isolation, and more.

While news headlines are no longer dominated by the impact of conflict on UK veterans, their daily struggles are no less challenging.

Demand for Help for Heroes support services is growing. The charity helped eight per cent more veterans and family members in the financial year 2021/2022 than it did the previous year, despite its income falling by more than half since 2014.

On average, four people are medically discharged from the Armed Forces every day in the UK. And that can be when the toughest battle of all begins.

Help for Heroes’ Joanne Tottle, interim head of case management, explained: “Life can be tough when your military career comes to an end. Overnight, you lose more than your job. You also lose a support network that's like your family.

“You'll need to find somewhere else to live and create a new life for yourself. On top of that you might be in pain and be struggling with your mental health. It can feel so easy to shut yourself off from the world.

“We take our wide range of support and recovery services out to where veterans and their families live across the UK. By doing this we help people connect with their local communities.”

Help for Heroes has already supported more than 27,000 people and plans to keep going until every veteran receives the support they need. The charity supports veterans from any branch of the UK military – regulars or reserves – irrespective of length or place of service, and locally embedded civilians (and their families) who worked alongside the armed forces.