Reaching for veteran care

SUE Holderness is fronting the Royal Air Force’s centenary campaign Join The Search. Change A Life.

The cause is close to her heart as her father Tony and her two uncles, Hardwick and John, flew hundreds of missions with the RAF throughout the Second World War and miraculously survived.

Now Sue wants to help find RAF veterans and their dependants who would benefit from the service’s Benevolent Fund, which provides financial, emotional and practical support.

Although they lived, Sue’s dad and uncles still carried the emotional scars of battle. She said: “The awful truth is that it goes on much further into your later life than any of us knows, because they simply didn’t talk about it.

“My father died when he was 70 and the other two brothers lived well into their 90s, but there were demons in my dad’s life.

“There were an awful lot of people who were putting on the stiff upper lip but suffering really quite emotional trauma.

“You were deemed to be weak if you didn’t just brace up and get on with it.”

Now the actress hopes any veterans in need of financial, emotional or practical support will come forward. She said: “There is a listening and counselling service. You get weekly phone calls, friendship groups, wellbeing breaks.

“But if they don’t know about it, we can’t provide it.

“Last year, the

RAFBF spent £21million looking after 53,000 people, but we’re sure there’s another 50,000 out there.”

Anyone who knows someone in need who has an RAF connection can contact the charity on rafbf.org.uk or call 0300 102 1919.