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The KM Media Group has joined forces with Royal British Legion Industries (RBLI) to raise £100,000 to expand its facilities.
This week senior reporter Alan Smith spoke to a former soldier who the charity helped when his life spiralled out of control.
Planting a tree in memory of loved ones should have been an easy enough task. But for former Royal Engineer Andy it was a disaster.
The spot chosen was where somebody had previously buried a cat and as the spade went in the ground the fumes from its body transported Andy back 20 years to the horrors he witnessed while in Bosnia.
The 50-year-old, who served from 1992 till 1999, said: "I was in Germany, did a couple of tours in Canada and Cyprus, but it was the six months in Bosnia that will never leave me.
"While there we came across some mass graves. It was a terrible sight, but at the time I coped fine. In the Army you always use humour to deal with things. We just laughed it off.
"But in 2017 I had several people very close to me die, all in the space of three weeks. We decided to plant a tree, dug up an old cat and the smell just triggered me off.
"It was 20 years after the event, but it just triggered all those memories. It tipped me over. I started drinking heavily and had a relationship breakdown."
Andy didn't know it at the time, but he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and pretty soon he had to leave his family home and was on the streets with a massive drinking problem.
He admitted: "I was drinking litres of vodka like it was water."
Describing PTSD, he said: "Anxiety levels kick in big time. Depression. You think back to what could you have done? Why am I feeling this way?
"For 20 years it had been in the back of my mind. All of a sudden, snap!
"All the memories came flooding back and then it was just a case of...I couldn't cope with it. I couldn't cope with it at all."
For the past two and a half years, Andy has been safely ensconced in the arms of the Aylesford-based RBLI where he is making sound progress in Mountbatten Pavilion – its emergency accommodation wing.
He spoke of his journey to get there.
'It was 20 years after the event, but it just triggered all those memories. It tipped me over...'
He said: "I was lucky. When I first became homeless, I met some really good people. They took me to their little camp site about half hour out of Maidstone. There were seven of us on the site. They showed me where to get food, clothes.
"We used to go into the day centre in Knightrider Street in Maidstone where you could shower, put on fresh clothes – probably if you met us on the street, you would not have realised we were homeless.
"So we were quite lucky in that respect. I spent seven months camping out. Fortunately it was a long hot summer."
Then Andy, who comes from Coxheath, was given a room in Riverside's emergency accommodation, Lily Smith House, in Maidstone.
Grateful, he stayed there three years and six months but was making no progress in controlling his drinking or dealing with his PTSD.
He said: "There were a lot of youngsters there, teenagers from broken homes. I didn't really fit in.
"It was through a friend of a friend that I found out about this place.
"When I moved in here, in October 2022, it was not ideal because we were still in the middle of all the Covid restrictions, but now it's wonderful.
"At Lily Smith, they treated everybody the same, but here your are treated as an individual, with individual needs.
"I still have my drinking problem, but I'm more a binge drinker. I've opened up a hell of a lot more in the last year than I have ever done before.
"Just speaking about my problems, rather than keeping them to myself, helps so much.
"Before I had been bottling it up and hiding away in my room.
"Now I'll come down and speak to members of staff, have a chat."
RBLI has three welfare officers looking after ex-servicemen who end up in the village's emergency accommodation.
One of them is Alex Emery, who explained: "We don't provide treatment ourselves, but we signpost the lads to other organisations that can help.
"So we have PTSD Resolution and the AA come in and sometimes we take the lads into Maidstone to see Change Grow Live (a charity specialising in treating substance abuse).
"But the camaraderie here helps too. The problems faced by people who have been in war zones are not easily understood by those who haven't. We deal with those problem every day and we can signpost the lads pretty quickly to people who will understand."
Asked what he found most beneficial at the RBLI, Andy said the support from the welfare officers.
He said: "It's all about trust. Ex-servicemen can talk among ourselves, but more people are going to the staff and talking more, opening up about what's going on, the issues they've got, because we've learned to trust them. Then they can point us in the right direction for help."
Alex said: "Andy has come on in leaps and bounds. He still has triggers, but he recognises those and is learning how to deal with them."
Now Andy wants to pay back the RBLI. He runs a coffee shop on Wednesday afternoons.
He added: "You get a lot of the older fellows and ladies. I like listening to their stories; it really makes me smile."
'Helping Andy cope with his demons outside of this building is what we are working on right now...'
And on one occasion he even voluntarily slept out on the streets again – in a sponsored fundraiser for the charity.
He said: "You eventually realise you can't have everything just thrown in your lap; you have to face up to your own demons and take some action."
But he also admitted: "I've still got a little way to go."
Alex added: "Helping Andy cope with his demons outside of this building is what we are working on right now.
"It's not just now dealing with the alcohol and the PTSD – that will probably continue for a long-time – it's how will he manage that outside in the community?"
The journey of a veteran
John Cowman is the RBLI's director of living.
He said: "I know first-hand the journey that a veteran goes on. My partner left the Marines about two years ago and I've seen how hard it is even for a perfectly decent guy, very able, with lots of support around him.
"It's a huge transition from being in the military where your life is determined for you, to Civvy Street. You need to get a job, get housing, navigate the system and understand what it is is you need to do – it is difficult.
"On top of that many of the people that we work with here in Mountbatten have additional conflicts in their lives, be that PTSD, drug or alcohol addiction, or other challenges, such as relationship break-down or family breakdown.
"We have 31 beds here at Mountbatten Pavilion. We use 28 of them and let the Royal British Legion use three of them for crisis accommodation.
"Having stable accommodation is essential to help veterans get their lives back on track. Also here, they are with people who are on similar journey to themselves. They get a better feel of a community than they might if they were renting an apartment in town.
"When they are here, we support them with our Step-in Programme: Support, Training, Evaluation, Personalised, Independence, Next steps.
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"We don't have any particular criteria. We don't say: 'You're only here for three months and you need to sort yourself out and go. It will totally depend on the person.
"The support they receive here is tailor-made. They spend the time they need here,
"By the time they leave, we will have stabilised their living arrangements, put them on a path to employment and where appropriate, we may have helped them re-establish some of their personal relationships, as well as given them the sense of being part of a wider community."
John gave the example of a Marine who had served in the Gulf and Afghanistan and who was medically discharged after suffering horrific combat injuries.
He said: "His father brought him to us three years ago straight from Plymouth on the day of his discharge. As well as his injuries, he had a drink problem and mental health issues. He had split from his wife and had no home.
"After spending six months here in Mountbatten, he was able to move first into our assisted-living accommodation at Queen Elizabeth Court and then later into one of our new independent apartments in the Centenary Village.
"His life is indescribably different to what it was. He is totally independent. He has even become an ambassador for the RBLI, very willing and able to tell his story. His daughter who is at university now comes to stay with him at his apartment, so he can be part of her world and her life.
"He no longer uses alcohol, but you can never get somebody off PTSD. All you can do is teach them how to cope with it, but it will always be part of their lives.
"I spoke to one resident in his early 80s the other day. I hadn't seen him for a while and I asked: 'Are you doing okay? '
"He said: 'No, I watched a television programme I shouldn't have watched.'
"It had sparked that journey for him all over again. But the unique thing about the RBLI is that our veterans never move away from our support, and we were immediately able to place a welfare officer with him."
Our campaign
The RBLI is currently undertaking an ambitious project to expand its Centenary Village at Aylesford, so that it can help more ex-servicemen and women.
The KM Media Group has pledged to help them build Homes for Heroes – by raising £100,000 for the cause.
The charity already provides first-class accommodation to more 350 veterans and their families.
Now it wants to build six more apartments specifically for women ex-service personnel so that they can share the services provided at Mountbatten Pavilion.
To donate to Homes for Heroes, visit rbli.co.uk/heroes
Alternatively, donate by text message – text 5RBLI to 70085 to donate £5; text 10RBLI to 70085 to donate £10, or or text 20RBLI to 70085 to donate £20.
Texts will cost the donation amount plus one standard network rate message, and you’ll be opting into hearing more from the RBLI.
If you would like to donate, but not be contacted further, please add NOINFO to your text message.
