2020
The Blesma News for 2020 covering news, activities and fundraising events for limbless veterans.
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Meet fellow Blesma Members: Stella Clarke
4 June 2020
When Stella was interviewed for this piece she was 94 years old and was one of Blesma’s longest-serving Members, having being injured 76 years ago as a civilian I was 13 years old when WWII broke out. My father was a Regimental Sergeant Major, so my five siblings and I knew a lot about Army life. We weren’t children – we were his troops! We’d come home from school, polish our shoes and line them up ready for his inspection. We learned all sorts of things; my father even taught me how to read a blueprint! During the war, I worked at a pen f
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The Resilience Sessions - Carol Vorderman and Si Harmer
2 June 2020
The Resilience Sessions is a podcast series featuring compelling in-depth interviews, which bring to light life-changing and affirming experiences of Blesma veterans and the unknown personal struggles of celebrity guests who have fought to overcome hardship, including mental health difficulties, disability, devastating injury and bereavement. This podcast series is created in association with The Drive Project, who work with Blesma to deliver Making Generation R. We have already helped over 50,000 young people and first responders through the Making Generation R camp
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Dunkirk 80: Remembering Bert Evans
31 May 2020
Blesma Member Bert Evans, who died in 2013 aged 92, was one of the last survivors of the massacre at Wormhoudt, near the Franco-Belgian border, during the withdraw to Dunkirk 80 years ago this year. Bert was serving with D Company 2nd Battalion the Royal Warwickshire Regiment (2 Royal Warwicks) which, on 19 May 1940, came under a devastating air attack near Tournai, suffering many casualties. A week later the Royal Warwicks were ordered to hold the village of Wormhoudt to buy time for the evacuation of thousands of soldiers of the B
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Blesma Member Dean is battling Coronavirus on the frontline
30 May 2020
Former Royal Air Force Senior Aircraftman Dean Mills has been serving on the Coronavirus frontline after being called up to help in a major hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The 49-year-old Blesma Member, who left the forces after a serious climbing accident, has been working 13-hours shifts with up to 11 hours spent in full protective gear and face mask. Dean, who was in the RAF for ten years, is now a key ICU team member at St. James’ Hospital in Leeds, a regional centre for treating Covid-19 patients. “It has been very tough. We have lost some pe
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