Durham poppy appeal launches

The Durham and North Tees Poppy Appeal launches today with the city’s first ever Garden of Remembrance at Durham Cathedral.

People will be able to place remembrance crosses in the ground close to the entrance to the Cathedral.

This year, the Royal British Legion is asking people to rethink what Remembrance means.

The poppy and the work of the legion are often associated with the First and Second World Wars and elderly veterans.

However the charity is calling on the public to reconsider what the poppy stands for and wear it in support of the Armed Forces community, past and present.

RAF veteran Anna Pollock will help to launch the Poppy Appeal at Durham Cathedral.

Anna, 35, lives in Catterick, North Yorkshire, and is married to Scott, who serves in the Army.

A former medic in the RAF, Anna joined up in 2000 and completed a tour of Iraq. In 2013, mum-of-three Anna had a sudden bleed on her spine which has led to lasting nerve damage. This restricted her ability to walk and has left her heavily reliant on a wheelchair.

Despite this, with the help of the Legion she was able to take part in the Invictus Games last year, returning to the UK with three bronze medals. Anna said: “If it wasn’t for the Legion, I wouldn’t be where I am; the Legion played a massive part in my recovery.”

The fundraising target in Durham and North Tees is £800,000, which will go towards the Legion’s national target of £47 million to continue its vital work delivering practical, through life care and support to the Armed Forces community.

In the last year the generosity of the British public helped the Legion answer more than one million requests for help.

The Legion uses donations to offer support in many ways including providing crisis grants, researching the long lasting impact of blast injuries on the body, lobbying the government on issues that affect our community, sport and art based recovery programmes and advising on benefits and money problems.