Every November, people across the country buy poppies to support the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal and our Armed Forces community. But right now, RBL’s services are in such demand that they really need your support all year round. RBL’s Supporter Development Manager, Beth Miller, spoke to GoodPAYE about the impact that payroll giving donations can make, highlighting the charity’s Battle Back Centre and the story of ex-serviceman, Lyndon.
The men and women of the Armed Forces play an extraordinary role in guarding our freedoms. The nature of their work can bring challenges for both serving and ex-serving personnel, and their families. At the Royal British Legion, we believe that no-one who has served to protect those freedoms should be disadvantaged because of the sacrifices they have made. We ensure that serving and ex-serving personnel get the support they need to recover physically and mentally, especially at our Battle Back Centre. Your payroll donation can secure support for them all year round.
RBL’s Battle Back Centre provides adaptive sport and adventure-based courses to help Service personnel and Veterans recover from injury or illness and the tools to overcome their particular challenges and move forward with their lives. They leave the course feeling more positive, independent, and less isolated.
Lyndon, 32, served as a Combat Engineer in 9 Parachute Squadron, 23 Engineer Regiment on two frontline tours of Afghanistan and was wounded in 2008 – his injuries included four broken vertebrae and he was medically discharged due to these spinal injuries.
The doctors in the military were careful with what I could and couldn’t do. I’d been told for so long that I wasn’t able to do something that I believed it. This led me to struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and I was in a really bad place.
In early 2012 Lyndon completed a rehabilitation course at the RBL-funded Battle Back Centre. Lyndon said:
I’d done a lot of adventure training with the military before, and I had in my head that that was what Battle Back was going to be like… turns out I was completely wrong.
During his time at The Battle Back Centre Lyndon developed a passion for adventure training and went on to secure a job as an Outdoor Instructor with Carnegie Great Outdoors which leads much of the coaching activities at the Centre.
I got really lucky and they asked me to come back as a coach here. It’s awesome and hugely rewarding to be able to support people who are wounded, injured or sick. I can’t pick one highlight from my Battle Back experience because there were so many. From the varied activities and help both physically and mentally, the encouragement and support, and the interaction. The support I received has given me the massive confidence boost I needed.
Watch to hear from Lyndon directly about his experience at the RBL’s Battle Back Centre and how we were able to help him in his recovery:
Since it opened in 2011, our Battle Back Centre has helped over 5,000 wounded injured and sick Veterans and serving personnel, like Lyndon, to recovery. You can help us to be there for the Veterans who need our support to recover from injury or sickness by making a Payroll Giving donation today.
How you’ll be helping:
- £5 could help pay the travel costs for a Veteran to visit a loved one in hospital.
- £7.50 could provide equipment for our Battle Back centre which provides adaptive and adventure sports to improve physical and mental well-being.
- £10 could contribute to providing emergency overnight accommodation.
- £15 could pay for food vouchers for a family facing financial hardship.
Support Royal British Legion
If you are an organisation looking to support RBL through a payroll giving scheme, contact the GoodPAYE team to get set up. If you’re an employee that wants to support RBL, find out more here.