2020
The Blesma News for 2020 covering news, activities and fundraising events for limbless veterans.
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Blesma Members take part in Online Wellness Workshop
1 April 2020
This week, Blesma trialled an online breath workshop aimed at helping Blesma Members improve their wellbeing and manage pain within their own homes. During this period of isolation, Blesma is adapting the way it responds to the welfare needs of our limbless and injured veterans. With mental health being just as important as physical health right now, Blesma teamed up with Emily Hightower, who many Members may know from Blesma’s Challenge Aspen Military Ops (CAMO) activity, to organise an online, livestreamed breath workshop so Members can connect, train and learn together how they ca
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Our limbless and injured veterans need your support now as much as ever
30 March 2020
In light of the current circumstances around COVID-19, many events that raise vital funds to support Blesma’s important work helping injured veterans and their families have been forced to cancel. This naturally puts a strain on our fundraising work and at times like these, it is important that we come together and support each other through what is to be a time of uncertainty. As everybody is aware the pandemic has been with us for some time now and is set to have even more impact in the coming weeks, especially on vulnerable people. Here at Blesma we are con
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In the Spotlight- Jack Cummings
28 March 2020
Jack Cummings was part of a Royal Engineers bomb disposal team when he was injured by a bomb blast in Afghanistan in 2010, losing both legs above the knee “I joined the Army when I was 16 – a week after getting my GCSEs. My dad had been a soldier and advised me to join the Royal Engineers to get civilian qualifications. I trained as an electrician, but after I’d qualified I was told I would be going into bomb disposal because Afghanistan was really starting to ramp up. I deployed on my first tour of Afghanistan when I was just 19 and the job was packed with ad
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Making Generation R goes digital to inspire resilience during COVID-19
24 March 2020
Injured veterans who are part of Making Generation R are taking their powerful stories of resilience online to keep inspiring audiences from the comfort and safety of their own homes. Blesma Members Mat Armitage and Nerys Pearce delivered the first MGR virtual workshop to the Department for Education on Thursday 19 March. The talk was originally booked as part of the DfE team’s ‘Resilience Away Day,’ however in response to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the needs to social distance, it was suggested the session should be turned into a webinar instead. Over 70 people joine
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