2020
The Blesma News for 2020 covering news, activities and fundraising events for limbless veterans.
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The first Game On For Blesma event has taken place, and raised more than £1,000 for Blesma!
25 October 2020
The first Game On For Blesma event has taken place, and raised more than £1,000 for Blesma! Callum Walker spent 24 hours on live video gaming website Twitch, raising more than £1,000 for the Association in the process. Starting at 5pm on Saturday 27 June and playing right through until 5pm the next day, Callum was the first gamer to live stream his gaming to support the Association. “The fundraiser went really well. I mixed it up a bit by playing multi-player games so I had people to talk to online,” said Callum, whose right leg was paralysed below the
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A Day in the Life Blesma Member: James O'Connell
23 October 2020
I served in 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment in the Falklands Conflict. During the Battle of Mount Longdon, the main attack came from the west, but my company was located to the north in the direct line of Argentine fire. All their guns were facing our location so our area was swept with machine gun fire and pounded with artillery. The battalion took many casualties: 23 dead and 48 wounded. I was clipped in the face by a bullet. I lost my right eye and cheekbone, the centre of my nose and my front teeth. Thanks to the expertise of surgeons over a
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Poetry readings for Remembrance
21 October 2020
As we all know Remembrance Day 2020 will be different from any other. Although the Coronavirus pandemic has led to the cancellation of many National events, such as the Annual March to the Cenotaph, we know that many of our Membership, along with the wider military community, will nonetheless be looking to mark Remembrance in their own personal ways. Once again, it is a time to consider how to mark this poignant event, even though we are apart, and remind our community that Blesma is as united as ever and more together than ever. We are hoping to gather a col
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A beacon of hope for amputees everywhere
20 October 2020
A decade ago, a PhD student from Imperial College London, who was also in the Army, noticed the types of injuries that troops were sustaining from landmines detonated under vehicles in Afghanistan. He believed some of these injuries could be prevented, or the outcomes improved, and studies got underway. The project was initially called Imperial Blast and was a collaboration between the Ministry of Defence and Imperial College London. In 2011, it morphed into the Centre for Blast Injury Studies (CBIS). Since then, the Centre has become a bustling hub of research into numerous t
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