2021
Blesma Updates for 2021, covering news, activities and fundraising events for limbless veterans.
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Veteran with spinal cord injury first to receive Jaco arm
5 July 2021
A former Paratrooper, who was paralysed in an accident, has told how he can feed himself for the first time in 17 years after being given a Jaco robotic arm. Military veteran Jon Noble is only the second person in the UK to own a JACO assistive robotic arm, which is mounted on a power wheelchair, thanks to funding from military charities Support Our Paras, Blesma The Limbless Veterans, Help for Heroes, Royal British Legion and ABF The Soldiers Charity and case working and liaison support from SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity. The veteran was badly injured in a road traffic acci
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Virtual Veterans Pain Management Clinic
1 July 2021
Living with persistent pain can be very difficult, as it can affect all areas of your life. Would you like to attend a free veteran-specific pain management clinic to help you learn ways to manage your pain more effectively? Following very good feedback from its first-ever virtual Pain Management Programme (PMP), King Edwards VII’s Hospital is able to offer more. The face-to-face programme has twice been rated as ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The virtual programme delivers the same content as the face-to-face version without the need to travel to or stay
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Member helps restore century-old memorial
29 June 2021
For the last six years, injured veteran Ben Cartwright was been on a mission to restore a 101-year-old war memorial in his Hampshire village. The memorial in Over Wallop honours those from the village who served in the World Wars and the conflict in Afghanistan. Among the names are those of 95 men who fought in WWI, 18 of whom were killed in action.“The memorial was erected in 1919, and though it had been cleaned over the years it was suffering from wear and damage,” said Ben, 75, who served in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
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Remembering Peter Van Zellar
23 June 2021
Peter Van Zeller has sadly passed away, aged 99. Peter was born in London and grew up in Inverness. He served in both the Royal Air Force and the British Armyduring World War II. Peter always wanted to go to university, but the war started before he left school so, at the age of 18, he joined the RAF instead, receiving his pilot’s badge after just 136 hours of flying. It was one of the proudest moments of his life. However, after witnessing a friend and fellow pilot die after being involved in a plane crash, Peter left the RAF after just two years.
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