The Welsh charity dedicated to servicemen and women has won an important battle in its campaign to win more investment for Wales.
Healing The Wounds has been waging an important fight with the Help for Heroes (H4H) charity.
And today Healing The Wounds welcomed the decision by H4H to change its policy to ensure cash raised in Wales is spent on Welsh Armed forces.
“It’s no secret that we have been having something of a fight with H4H over the way money is allocated to Wales,” said Kevin Richards, Director of Healing the Wounds, the appeal fund which aims to provide a facility within Wales for the treatment of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and a convalescent home for the Armed Forces.
“Our focus as the Healing The Wounds charity is to raise money within Wales so that it can be spent in Wales, to make sure that our brave servicemen and servicewomen are treated close to home.
“The H4H charity has built up a huge charitable fund-raising effort in recent years and we have tried very hard to start a dialogue with them to make sure that the money that is raised in Wales stays in Wales.
“It is significant that the H4H charity is now starting to recognise the depth of public opinion in Wales, which shows them that Welsh people are unhappy with charitable cash leaking out of Wales into other areas of the UK.”
H4H, which helps provide facilities for wounded British members of the armed forces, has, up to now, put all money made through fundraising activities in Wales into a wider pot, with it being spent on services throughout Britain.
But the charity has now said that a restricted fund for Wales will ensure donors’ money goes only to Welsh servicemen and women in the future.
It comes a month after Mr Richards hit out at the H4H charity, claiming little of the money raised was coming to Wales.
Mr Richards added: “We are looking for funds to buy the Golden Grove mansion as a convalescent home for people suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The mansion is in a great location overlooking the Towy Valley, near Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire. However, if the sale does not materialise, Healing The Wounds will continue to raise the funds needed to provide care and treatment within Wales for our heroes.
“We hope to create a facility for treatments and recovery and one of the fund-sources we considered, was the H4H charity.
“We found ourselves getting knocked back, however, when we discovered that H4H spending, is governed by what the Ministry of Defence wants.
“There just seemed to be no scope in their operations for delivering what the people of Wales want and need for their servicemen and servicewomen.”
“We have consistently found in our fund-raising efforts that what people want is for money raised in Wales to stay in Wales.”
Over the past few months, Healing The Wounds has tried to get funding from Help for Heroes after being overwhelmed by donations from across the world.
Mr Richards said last month he was told no funding was currently available for Wales.
He said: “There is no funding left at the moment, and of the next £44m they are looking to raise, nothing is allocated for Wales.
“We were quite upset about that, because there are so many people in Wales who raise money for Help for Heroes and they don’t realise the money they’re raising doesn’t stay in Wales.
“But we are doing something to help, as every penny we raise through fundraising will stay in Wales to help our wounded.
“Our policy as a charity is to also treat and care for Armed Forces Veterans and their families, as at present there is no provision in or around Wales for this purpose.”
Help for Heroes chief executive Bryn Parry said this week that the H4H charity was now working closely with the Ministry of Defence to ensure cash was allocated to meet the needs of Welsh servicemen and women, who are largely based with their regiments in garrison towns.
All the full-time Welsh Army regiments – 1 and 2 Royal Welsh, 1st The Queens Dragoon Guards, the Welsh Guards and 39th Regiment Royal Artillery (The Welsh Gunners) – are based outside Wales. Centres to help wounded soldiers tend to be based nearby.
Mr Parry, a former soldier and cartoonist whose family is from Nercwys, Flintshire, said: “We are aware there are people who would like to raise money in Wales to go to Welsh servicemen. The MoD wants the centres where the soldiers are. It’s simply not true that H4H isn’t helping the Welsh.
“We’ve funded family activity breaks in Conwy and donated £1m towards an extension at St Dunstan’s new rehabilitation and training centre in Llandudno.”
Mr Richards said the change in H4H policy wasn’t a total victory.
“It still doesn’t go far enough, as far as we are concerned,” he said.
“The people of Wales, who are so very generous supporting military charities including H4Hs, can rest assured that we will continue to battle hard to make sure Welsh servicemen and servicewomen get the treatment they deserve, and in the location they deserve – home in Wales.”
