2020
The Blesma News for 2020 covering news, activities and fundraising events for limbless veterans.
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In the spotlight: Chris Jones
18 October 2020
Chris has been a Blesma Welfare Volunteer, a position historically known as Welfare Rep, for 15 years and a Member for 54. He steps down from his role in September and has received another Blesma award for his hard work. “I became a Welfare Rep for Gloucestershire in 2005. I had just been medically retired from the Civil Service, and after travelling around America and Australia for several weeks, retirement hit me like a brick. The phone never rang, I missed the social aspect of work, and I struggled with having so much free time. I began to look for a volunteer rol
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Alex gets Blesma-funded bike as he trains for RAAM
16 October 2020
A Blesma-funded bike has been a “godsend” for Alex Krol during lockdown. Alex was selected for Blesma’s 2020 Race Across America team, but after turning up to a training day in January with what his teammates called a ‘donkey of a handbike’, Blesma stepped in to get the former Royal Marine a more suitable set of wheels. “The new bike is phenomenal and it has given me something to focus on,” said the 38 year old from Merseyside. “I rocked up to the first training camp and Mike Griffith, the Team Director, told me I was sitting too high in my bike and tha
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Could your wellbeing benefit from a poetry workshop? Find out how it helps Members
15 October 2020
Britain has a rich tradition of military poetry, but most of it stems from the two World Wars – recent military verse hasn’t achieved quite the same impact. “It’s interesting; we have a great deal of substantial writing from those conflicts, but unlike in America, where the Vietnam War produced a large number of veterans who went on to become writers, poets and artists, we haven’t had very much poetry from members of the UK Armed Forces since WWII,” says Niall Munro director of the Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre. Last year, Niall and the Centre set out to change
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Former Army Combat medic to take on 150km kayak challenge
14 October 2020
Former Army combat medic Nerys Pearce, who had to pull out of her bid to become the first person paralysed from the chest down to swim the Channel, has vowed: “I’ll be back.” The 38-year-old, who had to abandon her attempt when her body temperature dropped alarmingly after nine hours in the water, has booked another crack at the endurance feat next year. "I was very disappointed but I didn’t cry about not finishing because the biggest goals aren’t the easiest things to achieve,” said Nerys, who went straight back into training and just a few weeks later is att
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