Ex-soldiers brave the cold for veterans
DRAWING ATTENTION TO PLIGHT BY SLEEPING UNDER STARS
Reporter A TEAM of current and former servicemen braved freezing temperatures at Newcastle’s Grey’s Monument to draw attention to the plight of veterans facing homelessness and struggling with their mental health.
Alfie Usher, 30, a former member of the Parachute Regiment, helps organise a Facebook group connecting members of the armed forces. Alongside jokes about military life, he found that some former soldiers turned to the community for support, as they struggled with adjusting to life outside the service.
Determined to help, members of the group organised the sleep-out on Thursday night in aid of their comrades who had fallen on hard times.
Alfie said: “When I left two years ago, I was quite lucky. I had an idea for a business and was able to get it started.
“But for a lot of people, they’re guys who have gone from a life where everything is sorted, everything is covered – you’re in a bubble, and when that bubble bursts they can find it quite hard. “A lot of them fall through the gaps. “As well as homelessness, there are a lot of mental health problems which need to be tackled.”
Alfie and his friends are hoping to raise awareness of the issues veterans face – but they’re also hoping to offer tangible help to ex-servicemen and women by donating sponsorship money to forces charities.
He said: “We’ve raised more than £2,000 so far. We’re going to put it to a vote in the group to decide which military charities it will go to.”
As a group of seven former military personnel tucked up in dressing gowns and sleeping bags around the base of the city centre’s biggest landmark, the fundraisers attracted a fair bit of attention as they began their sleep-out.
But they said they’d received a positive response from the public.
The weather was proving a bit of a challenge, however. “It is a bit cold,” Alfie admitted. To donate to their appeal, visit www. facebook.com/Fillyourbootsuk/