2023 WINNERS ANNOUNCED
Animal Partnership Awardin partnership with Pets at Home
Jonathon decided that he wanted to help other veterans navigate their mental health issues, and the Veterans’ Mental Health and Wellbeing Service, run by Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, gave him the opportunity to put his experiences to good use as a Veterans’ Peer Support Worker.
Wherever he goes, Baxter is with him – from crossing by ferry from the Isle of Wight, to Veteran Drop-Ins in Bicester, he’s there! Without him, Jonathon says, he wouldn’t be doing what he is today – Baxter is chief confidant, stress reliever, best friend, and scourge of any carrots left lying around!
Working Together Awardin partnership with Forces in Mind Trust
In October 2022, Darren Clarke, Ben Catchpole, Horace Shuria, and Stephen Johnson took part in Commando22 at Hever Castle, replicating the Royal Marine Commando Course. In minus four temperature and extremely wet conditions, the team battled over 12km and 26 obstacles, raising £1 million pounds for the Royal Marines Charity, assisting them to support widows and orphans of Marines killed on active duty. This is particularly poignant as all of the team are ex-members of 42 Commando and 29 Commando, and all were injured in the theatre of operations. Each has been through the system, dealt with combat stress, and is committed to inspire other veterans to excel and progress as the community has always done.
Education, Training & Development Awardin partnership with Capita
Newtown Army Cadets provides a service to 40 young people in the local community, ranging from 12-18 years, both male and female. Newtown is a small rural town in mid Wales with a small catchment area with one high school and two bus-tripped high schools, but over the years the local Army Cadet Force has helped over 300 young people.
Sporting Excellence Awardin partnership with Amazon
Glyn was introduced to the Purple Warriors charity Dragon Boat club when it was established in 2016. The club’s members are all serving or former HM Forces personnel who have some form of impairment. Inspired by the challenges they have overcome, some of the best dragon boaters in the country have joined together to help the team achieve even more. Glyn was in a very dark place mentally at this point in his life and felt worthless and lost. He attests that the Dragon Boat experience saved his life.
Healthcare & Rehabilitation Awardin partnership with Redwood Technologies Group
Having left the Army, Tony discovered that there was an opportunity to widen access to treatment for mental health and trauma therapy for veterans, reservists and their families. So, he went about training to become a qualified therapist and with another newly qualified therapist, Piers Bishop, established the charity PTSD Resolution in 2009. Tony has run the charity as CEO and Chair and receives no payment for the time he gives. He set up a UK-wide network of 200 registered therapists, sourced trustees who were passionate about veteran mental health, and raised the money to pay for the therapy required. Since 2009, over 3600 veterans, reservists and their families have been helped.
Defence Inclusivity Awardin partnership with Landmarc
Fighting With Pride is a lived experience charity that has given a voice to its community. Despite the immense challenge of starting a charity during a pandemic, it has made its case with dignity and respect, and begun to wash away decades of shame felt by these once proud members of our Armed Forces. It has, in its vanguard of supporters, hundreds of veterans’ charities reaching across the whole of the UK.
Inspiration Award in partnership with Natwest
Whilst at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court for over two years, Mark was in constant pain; his legs had to be stretched daily and he progressed from being in a wheelchair to a standing frame, to walking with a frame. After intensive hospital treatment, physiotherapy, and rehabilitation, Mark battled through his recovery from paralysis to mobility and achieved his goal of walking again, though still with difficulty using a stick. As well as making great personal progress, Mark has also given back to those in need, by undertaking challenges and events, raising thousands of pounds for ABF The Soldiers’ Charity and other organisations devoted to the Army family and local communities
Business Start-Up Awardin partnership with GKN Aerospace
Inspired by a friend helping veterans with PTSD through nature-based therapy, Jim wanted to play a part in helping both fellow veterans and the environment. He founded ‘Carma’ (short for Carbon Karma) in May 2021, whose mission is to ‘remove 1bn tonnes of CO2 from our atmosphere’. Carma provides businesses and consumers with simple and affordable methods of making a social and environmental impact by buying tree planting packages, where trees are planted in the UK by veterans with PTSD and also globally through international charitable partners.
Business Scale-Up Awardin partnership with LSEG Foundation
In February 2022, Tin Trousers moved into their current home – christened TTHQ – in Gosport, where an experienced team of tailors can be found hard at work. The company has grown to employ other military spouses like Erin among its 8-strong team, all of whom are determined to maintain the very highest standards of workmanship while returning uniforms to their owners as quickly as possible. They are now available on various sites across the Solent Area. Tin Trousers only uses traditional methods and materials to provide the Royal Navy (and other services) with uniforms worthy of their proud history. The company recently took on the tailoring contract for HMS Excellent, including Royal Navy ceremonial work, as well as the management of the Solent Area Supply and Fit contract.
Business Community Impact Award in partnership with Cisco
Shane Glasspool & Craig Pinkney’s Crimsham Farm, in Pagham West Sussex, is a specialist alternative provider of support for children with Special Educational Needs, who either don’t fit into the ‘normal’ educational setting or who have been excluded. It provides a safe, green space where the children can access education in a totally different way. A large proportion of the Directors and staff are ex-military, bringing their unique skillsets to bear in order to help build self-worth in the children on Crimsham Farm’s roll. This Armed Forces experience has also been crucial in recognising that the education of children in military families can sometimes be interrupted by the peripatetic nature of a parent’s work life. At this point, staff can intervene and bring them up to a level similar to that of their peers.
Family Values Awardin partnership with Right Management
Mutual Support is a non-profit organisation, supporting a free membership of 1200 people, run wholly by volunteers who retain the enthusiasm, dedication and good humour from their military background. They commit themselves to provide and maintain a range of services to serving and former personnel and their families, including two annual, funded, respite and wellbeing weekends. Mutual Support is a unique military group that sits within the National MS Society and thus benefits from utilisation of the national group’s training, oversight, knowledge, communications, and safeguarding. It reports routinely and fulfils returns annually to MSS HQ to assure financial and safeguarding propriety.
Lifetime Achievement Awardin partnership with Oracle
As a young girl Khumi was involved in the National Cadets Corps in Manipur and always had an interest in the military – her uncle fought in Burma during the Second World War and received the Military Cross. After graduation, she joined Air India and had postings around the world. In 1976 she married a retired Major from the Cheshire Regiment, moving halfway around the world to be with him.
She was appointed as Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester in 2003 (the first South-East Asian woman to hold the post) and became the East Cheshire County Poppy Appeal Coordinator in 2013.
Khumi has been a long-term supporter and fundraiser for Combat Stress – her drive and dedication is unstoppable and she continues to raise awareness of the charity.
Special Recognition
Talula Grey
Talula Grey, the pen name of Bianca Robbins, is a Navy wife and mother of one. With her six-year-old son struggling to cope with his father’s absence on deployment, Bianca decided to take action by penning a kids’ book to support the emotional wellbeing of children with a parent in the Navy.
The books help children understand why their parents may be away from home, giving comfort to service families.
Jodie Evans and Natalie Maddox-Hussain
Jodie Evans and Natalie Maddox-Hussain came together with a vision to build a network that tackled both diversity and inclusion in Defence in a collaborative, open, and imaginative way.
They united a small but determined group of individuals, from varying ranks, grades and backgrounds, that shared their mission to make the change they wanted to see, and the Defence Women’s Network was born. Within two years the impact has been huge.
