Blesma News
Latest news from Blesma, The Limbless Veterans
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Jean Goodall looks at the Association from a Widow’s perspective
19 December 2015
Jean Goodall became the Chair of a Blesma branch almost without a say in the matter. “I was sitting at the back of an East Berkshire meeting in 2000, a couple of years after my husband had died, and the Chairman announced that he was going to stand down,” recalls the 76 year old. “The Treasurer shouted ‘Jean!’ and before I knew it, I was taking the meeting. Next, I got a letter from Blesma congratulating me on being the new Chair and Welfare Officer, which hadn’t even been mentioned! “I really enjoyed it though,” she admits. “Everyone said it was because I like telling people what to do! It
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Building The Future
15 December 2015
The ambitious vision of a state-of-the-art clinical rehabilitation centre moves ever closer as the bricks and mortar of the new Defence rehab facility on the Stanford Hall estate take shape in the heart of England. Contractors are now constructing purpose-built units at the 354-acre Nottinghamshire site that will become a beacon of care for wounded Service personnel. The £300 million project for a new Defence National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC) began with a conversation between the Duke of Westminster and General Sir Tim Granville-Chapman, then the Vice-Chief of the Defen
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Mobility Fund Launch
11 December 2015
Two new funds have been launched to support veterans with serious physical injury or hearing loss, providing them with equipment and therapies to improve their wellbeing. A total of £13 million over 5 years has been made available from income generated from Libor fines. Each programme element has been designed in consultation with the Ministry of Defence (MOD), National Health Service (NHS), Department of Health and representatives from subject matter experts in the medical and Armed Forces charity communities. Blesma has taken a leading role, particularly with the first of these f
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Direct Skeletal Fixation - Key Facts
11 December 2015
Direct Skeletal Fixation (DSF) is an overarching term used by the NHS in England to describe the surgical procedure to implant a titanium rod into the shaft of a bone, from which part is exposed through the skin to which an external prosthetic device can be directly attached. The Chancellor recently announced £2 million to fund a programme led by a MoD team to provide this surgery to up to 20 serving military or veteran patients over 2 ½ years from April 2016. Previously the MoD had funded 5 serving personnel (3 sent to Australia and 2 surgeries carried out in the UK) and we are awar
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