A Black Watch veteran has spoken of his gratitude to a charity that has touched the hearts of the Scottish people.
Association chairman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Callander said: “We are proud to say that we are the only charity at present whose remit is to meet the housing challenges faced by servicemen and women who have been injured and suffer disabilities.
“This is demonstrated through our work with the military’s Personnel Recovery Unit (PRU), in which we have supported 41 individuals injured in conflicts and prioritised for housing.
“We are continuing our building programme and are planning to build eight new houses in Milton of Leys, Inverness. To achieve this we are actively seeking to raise the remaining £800,000 of the £1.2 million project.”
The latest show of support for the appeal came from the crew of the Deep Blue, with ex-serviceman and crew member Craig Oswald visiting Poppy Court to hand over a cheque.
“I first heard about Houses for Heroes last year and, having spent 12 years with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), I wanted to see if I could contribute in some small way,” he said.
“On board the ship we have a welfare charity fund, which is made up of donations from companies we are contracted to. For each project we complete safely with no incidents or injuries we are given a donation by those companies and I approached our safety committee to ask them to look at making a donation from our central fund to Houses for Heroes.”
He added: “It is only a small gesture on the Deep Blue crew’s behalf, but we all agreed that any small way we could help a charity that itself helps wounded and injured servicemen and women could only be a good thing.”Find out more at www.housesforheroes.org.ukPrivate Sam Morgan, who suffered devastating injuries while serving in Afghanistan, is among of the first to benefit from the Houses for Heroes Appeal (link).
Launched in April 2008, it aims to ensure that ex-servicemen and women with disabilities are supported in homes tailored to their needs.
Mr Morgan had to have his leg amputated after his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb.
He was flown out of the war zone in May 2009 and spent a year at the army recovery centre in Edinburgh recuperating from his injuries.
Once back home in Perthshire, he received his Afghanistan Campaign Medal from Prince Charles as the Duke of Rothesay visited the regiment’s spiritual home of Balhousie Castle in Perth.
In May he became one of the first injured servicemen and woman to move into a new home, provided by the appeal, at Poppy Court in Scone.
Mr Morgan (29) was present on Wednesday as the association accepted a cheque for £1,000, raised by the crew of the CSO Deep Blue, the world’s largest ultra deepwater pipelay and subsea construction vessel.
He said: “I heard about the association through a friend and they helped me get in touch and I was happy to be offered a house. It’s been really nice and it’s enabled me to stay close to my family, who only live about 15 miles away in Blairgowrie.
“There’s a lot of support from the association, from people within Poppy Court and just from the people in street. It’s a really lovely thing that people think so much about service personnel and it’s great that so many individuals are helping in their own small way.”
The Poppy Court development is run by the Scottish Veterans’ Garden City Association and features 10 homes designed to meet the needs of ex-servicemen and women with disabilities.
Five disabled servicemen have already been housed in the Scone flats and the association is seeking qualifying ex-servicemen and women to fill those left.
The £6 million Homes for Heroes appeal intends to see 60 houses built across Scotland and more than £3.3 million has already been raised and 22 houses completed towards the target. Poppyscotland, the Robertson Trust and the Gannochy Trust are among the major benefactors.
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