Brenda Hale, our Charity Ambassador, is now a published author! ‘’I Married a Soldier’ follows Brenda’s experience of losing her husband, Captain Mark Hale, whilst he was serving with 2 RIFLES in Afghanistan on the 13th August 2009.
Mark’s unit had been providing security for a meeting of local leaders in Sangin and searching a mosque for ammunition, when a soldier triggered an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).
Read moreFrom RAF Benson to RAF Wyton, the RAF Benevolent Fund has spent almost £50,000 in its second year of support for station families’ days.
The annual events are a much-loved date on the calendar when serving personnel are given the opportunity to share their working life with their loved ones. Families are able to relax and recuperate within their own community, without the pressure of operations, which is particularly important on stations where personnel are deployed short notice.
The RAF Benevolent Fund made grants to 34 stations, awarding a total of £47,000 to support the events.
Read moreFollow this link to all the latest news from Forward Assist.
Read moreWe are excited to announce that we have teamed up with the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court to send five military families to the beautiful Azure Resort in Malta in October 2017.
“The five families are all patients from the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC) at Headley Court, which aims to return all those service personnel injured or seriously ill to full fitness. DMRC is a nationally recognised centre of excellence that provides rehabilitation for more complex injuries, including amputee and neurological patients.
Read moreFollow this link to all the latest news from the RAF Families Federation.
Read moreAnnington Ltd is to support the tri-service charity Reading Force with a sum of £75,000 over the next three years.
Reading Force supports the social, emotional and mental wellbeing of Forces families through the experience of shared reading by providing free books and reading scrapbooks to members of the Forces and their families. The scheme also includes Veterans, Reservists and Former Forces partners and children.
Families are encouraged to form reading groups to talk about the books they are sharing, and children are encouraged to keep a scrapbook to record their thoughts and feelings about the chosen title.
Read moreBritish air drops kept Rifleman Kehersing Thapa alive during World War Two. Today, The Gurkha Welfare Trust continues to provide him with vital care.
Kehersing lives with his daughter and her family of six in the village of Chhabdi Barahi in Tanahun, in central Nepal. The veteran of the 8th Gurkha Rifles proudly remembers his fighting days throughout the early 1940s, a period that saw him serve in the Middle East and North Africa.
Read moreWorld War Two veteran Rifleman Manbahadur Limbu’s home has been damaged by the recent severe flooding in Nepal.
Last week, Gurkha pensioners were among the millions of people in Nepal affected by high levels of rainfall. The monsoon weather has continued to make life difficult for the Gurkha community, although water levels have now dropped.
Read moreThe Radio Academy Trustees have shortlisted Gurkha Radio BFBS in the Team of the Year category for the 2017 Audio & Radio Industry Awards (ARIAS).
The 40-strong team broadcasts in the Nepali language from studios in Nepal, Brunei and Kent and the channel plays a key role in supporting the British Army’s Brigade of Gurkhas.
Lisa Davis, Managing Editor of Gurkha Radio BFBS, said: “The Gurkha Radio team is delighted to be nominated in recognition for their hard work and dedication to their audience.
Read moreA third of serving RAF personnel can now benefit from free communal wi-fi provided by the RAF Association. The charity has made a £1.2million investment to keep serving airmen and women connected to their friends and loved ones and it is proving a huge success. Studies show that workplace loneliness leads to poorer performances in tasks and lesser contributions to team roles[1]. The ability to stay connected digitally helps to avoid some of those issues for people stationed away from home.
16 RAF stations and more than 11,000 personnel can now benefit from the free wi-fi. The project came about when the Association was told of the social isolation that many new recruits feel on commencing their service life. Security considerations often prevent access to military wi-fi for personal use and the cost of extra infrastructure to reach the more remote RAF bases is usually prohibitive.
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Afghanistan support
In light of recent events in Afghanistan, please find information and support resources here
