Buy a Tommy and help heroes
VETERANS injured serving their country are working flat out in a campaign to help their presentday comrades.
They are sending out 10-inch Perspex Tommies produced for the There But Not There campaign by charity Remembered, to mark the November 11 centenary of the end of the First World War, with proceeds going to charity.
The campaign has already raised £3million and hopes to sell 888,246 Tommies around the world by Armistice Day – one for every British and Imperial soldier lost.
Daily Express readers have bought nearly £400,000 worth of the Tommies and many councils have bought and installed 6ft Tommies at £750 each.
The veterans working at the Royal British Legion Industries (RBLI) factory in Aylesford, Kent, have each paid the price of war.
Former Welsh Guardsman Steve Hammond, 60, who was blown up during the 1982 Falklands War, was given a job and a home by RBLI.
The father-of-three, a supervisor at RBLI’s Britain’s Bravest Manufacturing Company, said: “The public owes a debt to the Forces. They do not realise what our troops go through.”
Ex-staff sergeant Tim Brown, 50, who served in the 1991 Gulf War, Bosnia, Northern Ireland and Iraq, had post-traumatic stress disorder. The father-of-five, who is now team leader at Britain’s Bravest Manufacturing Company, had family who served in the First World War. He said: “When I’m packing the Tommies I think of my relatives.”
Daily Express readers can now buy the £29.99 10-inch Tommies at a 10 per cent discount until the end of this month. Go to therebutnotthere.org.uk or call 0300 303 3837 during office hours and quote EXPRESSTOMMY100 for the £3 discount.
Proceeds go to The Royal Foundation, Walking With The Wounded, Combat Stress, Help for Heroes, The Commonwealth War Graves Foundation and Project Equinox: Housing Veterans.