Veterans Aid is a very fine little charity. It looks after homeless ex-Servicemen and women, without a fuss, providing more than 20,000 nights of accommodation a year to veterans – many very young. VA are the ‘Accidents and Emergencies’ of the Armed Services charities and are too busy to do much more than get on with their work, which they do well, with kindness and awesome speed.  Look at their website – http://www.veterans-aid.net/ – it’s an eye-opener. I have seen them doing this personally. They need funds and that is why I am mad enough to have a go at the Tough Guy Assault Course. It's billed as the toughest race in the world - an eight-mile assault course, through water obstacles, mud and worse: I mean through barbed wire, walls of fire and across freezing lakes.

Homeless ex-Servicemen and women, usually broken and destitute, come to see them from all over UK at their ‘drop-in’ centre near Victoria Station, in London.  From there begins a long and often painful path to regain their self-esteem and to reintegrate the community which many served bravely to protect. This journey involves a period of rehabilitation at their own veterans’ hostel in the East End of London; a good place, great people working there. When they are stronger they move on to their own flats and get a job.

Veterans Aid are doing all they can to get these guys back on their feet, fed, clothed, accommodated and stabilised at their hostel and treated for whatever is wrong with them. Some of them are slightly depressed, others are very seriously ill. VA badly need the funds to allow them to help them. This is where I come in. So please donate! Every gift makes a difference!

Thanks!