2023
The Blesma News for 2023 covering news, activities and fundraising events for limbless veterans.
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Blesma Member Joyce Meader’s Role in Knitting for Blockbusters
27 September 2023
Joyce Meader’s work features in a series of blockbuster films, but you won’t find her name on any of the credits. The Honorary Blesma Member is one of the UK’s foremost historical experts on military knitwear, and is in serious demand when film producers need garments that are historically accurate, often working around the clock with a group of local knitters to hit deadlines. Joyce has already played a significant behind-the-scenes role making period-perfect knitwear for the movies Warhorse, 1917 and The Wildest Dream, which stars Ralph Fiennes as pioneering cli
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Blesma announces former Brigadier Vivienne Buck as Chief Executive
6 September 2023
Blesma, the Limbless Veterans is delighted to announce the appointment of former Brigadier Vivienne Buck as the Association’s new Chief Executive, taking over from Jon Bryant in October 2023. Vivienne joins the Association after a highly successful career in the Army, where she ended her service as the first female Head of the British Royal Military Police. In this role she was responsible for delivering a policing, investigation and detention service to Defence and ensuring the safety and security of serving personnel across the world. She was also chair of two registered charities
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Blesma Fundraiser's 457-Day Tribute to Fallen Comrades
20 August 2023
Congratulations to British Army veteran Andrew O’Donoghue, who has successfully completed his extraordinary challenge to remember the 457 British soldiers who died in Afghanistan, raising funds for Blesma along the way. Andrew spoke to Blesma about the challenge he had set himself to run 4.57km every day for 457 days in memory of the 457 British soldiers who did not return from the war in Afghanistan, a conflict in which the 42 year old was a participant. The Ashton dad of one was in the Queen’s Lancashire and later the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiments during 22 years’ service in
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Rowing Towards Records: The journey of Gregg Stevenson, Blesma Member and Paralympic Hopeful
31 July 2023
On the water with the Blesma Member who is hoping to row into the record books Take it from a former Commando: elite rowing training is utterly brutal. “I’ve learned the hard way,” says Gregg Stevenson, a former member of 59 Commando Squadron Royal Engineers who lost both his legs in an IED blast in Afghanistan in 2009. “There is something spiritual about rowing because you have to work extremely hard but be graceful at the same time. It’s that famous swan analogy: giving it everything you’ve got underwater, but on the top y
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