Spare a minute, honour a hero

I have taken a few days to think how I wanted to blog about the horrific event in Woolwich this week. To be frank I have had to let my sheer outrage subside before I dared approach my keyboard. Now I feel calm enough to right something worthy to such a brave man.

Personally I have a lot of admiration for our forces and personally know or have known many people who were either in active service or have served our country. So much so it is hardly surprising that even my hubby is an ex US Navy serviceman. I have always respected a person who can physically honour and protect our country and its safety in a way I never could. But it is their strength of mentality that get overlooked. This people are so focused on their duty that they are exposed to such horrors we dare not imagine.

We all are aware of the cost this comes at, the post traumatic shock or loss of limbs that so many of our service personal suffer. I live close enough to one rehabilitation centre that I was well aware of the cost before it was made national news. As a child I never understood how much that one building would come to represent in a nation.

That is thanks in part to a charity called Help The Hero's, that brought the plight of the injured service personnel to the forefront. In the last few years the awareness has been made more and more visible. In the motor world they are represented at many of the major events. People are wearing the wrist bands and tee shirts to express their support.

Unfortunately it was in one of these shirts that a serviceman was attacked and killed in such a barbaric way I thought we had returned to the middle ages. No matter what the battle or war is no one deserves to die in such a horrific way. In many ways I feel the mass media helped by adding to the horror by giving these criminals airtime by showing their video. Fortunately the general public have reacted in the way Britain's are famed for, we rather than ran in fright, instead united in grief. Sure there are always those who have to go too far, but as a whole the nation has head its head up high.

Now there is a sea of flowers not just at the place where Drumer Lee Rigby fell, but at most local war memorials. The Help for Heroes website is selling out of certain items, and for there is a possibility of some religious tolerance in our communities united in horror. 

I am left feeling hollow that there is a little I can do to repay the debt of this young man and all those who have died before and will do in the future. For this reason I have attached the links for the Help for Hero's web page and two links to people doing the massive cycle ride from Paris to London for Help the Hero's. Some of which who are doing the ride are ex service personal who have suffered injury in service and benefited from the funds raised in the past.

If there is one thing I can do to help it is to pass the word. RIP LEE DIGBY AND ALL THOSE BEFORE HIM.



http://www.bmycharity.com/emclarkson1 
bmycharity.com/hughvancutsem 
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/