- Area:
- North East England
- Programme:
- Reaching Communities
- Release date:
- 14 8 2012
Veterans suffering from the horrors of war are to benefit from a £380,635 grant from the Big Lottery Fund (BIG).
A County Durham military support group, Veterans at Ease, received the funding to help servicemen and women across the North East cope with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and also to offer support in finding employment.
To date, the charity has worked with 33 veterans from Borneo, Northern Ireland, Falklands, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. The funding now means it will be able to provide salaried staff to help another 200 servicemen and also their wives over the next four years.
Charity founder and senior therapist, Garreth Murrell, said: “Without this funding from the Big Lottery Fund we’d be shutting the charity down.”
Garreth served for 10 years with the Cheshire Regiment. He served all over the world including Belize, Northern Ireland and was one of the first British soldiers into Bosnia in 1992.
He said: “On almost every patrol in Bosnia we could expect to be shot at or mortared. There was also the snow and ice to contend with which in some cases saw a number of fighting vehicles come dangerously close to hundreds of feet drops down the side of mountain ravines.”
Gareth left the Army in late 1994 and became a crime scene investigator for the police, attending murder scenes and post mortem examinations.
“I began to suffer nightmares and flashbacks from Bosnia,” he said. “In 2008 my world fell apart. I went on eight months long term sick and had suicidal thoughts.”
Garreth encountered a new therapy later that year– Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) – and decided to take early voluntary redundancy in September 2010 to set up a new charity and get trained in NLP to help other veterans.
He explained: “It is a therapy that doesn’t require the veteran to relive any combat experience. It helps remove negative emotional attachment to what would in the past have caused the veteran to behave in an unacceptable way. In other words, it reprograms the neural pathways in the mind so that the veteran no longer suffers and can get on with their lives.”
Former soldier John Taylor, from Gateshead, who served with 39 Regiment Royal Artillery and the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, sought help from the charity after developing post traumatic stress disorder. He joined the Army in 1995 aged 17 and was deployed to Bosnia, being one of the youngest soldiers there. He also had combat experience in Northern Ireland and Afghanistan.
John was so impressed with the therapy at Veterans at Ease, based in Spennymoor, he trained to become an NLP practitioner and now volunteers at the charity and also helps veterans like him make the transition from military to civilian life.
He said: “I suffered flashbacks, isolation, loneliness and sleepness nights – my problems were triggered by leaving the forces in 2010. The therapy makes you feel very relaxed and at ease. It was really good to talk to a veteran as you can relate to them and vice versa. You can’t completely stop the thoughts but I can control them better. I’ve found peace of mind.”
The funding for Veterans At Ease comes from BIG’s flagship Reaching Communities programme which helps those most in need and builds stronger communities.
Also receiving an award today is Owton Fens Community Association which receives £155,485 to develop an under-used community centre in Hartlepool. The Jutland Road Centre, in the Seaton Grange area of the Rossmere ward, has no permanent staff so a volunteer programme will be developed to provide lunch clubs, social activities, daily afterschool clubs, and a one-stop shop for employment advice and support. Youth activities will be further developed and a mother and toddler group will be established.
Initially a centre manager and community development worker will work with residents to develop ideas and the technical and managerial skills to run the centre before the residents themselves take control and ownership of the centre. It is hope that 1,800 local people will benefit.
Around 6,000 older people and carers will benefit from a £221,500 grant to expand a project by Age Concern Durham County. The project encourages and helps older people and carers to claim the welfare benefits they are entitled to and connect with services to improve their quality of life and retain their independence. There is evidence that access to good early advice can prevent older people from entering into debt, poor health, mental distress and social exclusion. The project will focus particularly on people in areas of high depravation, rural areas and those with mental health issues and disabilities.
James Turner, Big Lottery Fund’s Head of the North East region, said: “The traumatic experience of war can have a devastating effect on the lives of not just the veterans, but also their loved ones. Our funding will help former servicemen cope with combat stress related issues so they can maintain lasting relationships, enjoy a stable family life, secure employment and be active in the community
“We are very pleased to make these awards which will help hundreds of people in our region.”
Further Information
Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours media contact: 07867 500 572
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Ask BIG a question here: https://ask.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Follow BIG on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BigLotteryFund #BIGlf
Find BIG on facebook: www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFund
Notes to Editors
- The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
- BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since June 2004 BIG has awarded over £4.4bn.
- The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
- Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £28 billion has now been raised and more than 383,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
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