Help for Heroes

Help for Heroes was co-founded by husband and wife, Bryn and Emma Parry, in October 2007 after a meeting with General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, the then professional head of the British Army. Bryn had served with the Royal Green Jackets for 10 years, before leaving to become a cartoonist. The couple visited Selly Oak Hospital in July 2007, where they met servicemen and women who had been injured in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They decided they needed to do something to help. Initially the couple wanted to raise funds for a dedicated swimming pool for injured veterans at Headley Court Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre in Surrey. However, within two months…

The Big Battlefield Bike Ride is the charity's largest fundraising event. The first edition of the challenge was held in May 2008 when 300 cyclists biked from HMS Victory at Portsmouth to Northern France, tracing some of the region's most significant First World War and Second World War battle sites, and returned to the Cenotaph in London. There have been 11 further bike rides, cycling a total of 3,000 miles and raising around £10 million for the charity.