British actor Ross Kemp has reminded the public to donate to the Royal British Legion (RBL) for London Poppy Day while admitting that people might be “finding it economically tougher” this year.

London Poppy Day is the flagship event for the RBL’s annual Poppy Appeal and sees at least 2,500 volunteers and armed forces personnel from the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force hand out poppies and collect donations at Network Rail and TfL stations across the capital.

Kemp, 60, who became a household name playing EastEnders hardman Grant Mitchell, joined the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers for a military physical training session on Thursday, for the appeal looking to raise £1 million in one day, and also met collectors and Second World War veterans at London’s Charing Cross Station.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Kemp said: “London Poppy Day … I think we raise a million pounds nearly every year. We’re hoping to do that again this year.

“I know people are finding it economically tougher, maybe than other years, but remember the sacrifices that have been made on your behalf.

“And it doesn’t matter if you’re new to this country, whether you’ve been living here forever.

“I think wearing a poppy is something that shows that you care about our armed forces and the sacrifice the veterans have made on our behalf.”

Kemp also reflected on his familial links to the army and said: “Members of my family served both in the First and Second World Wars. My father was in the army.

“I’ve got lots of mates who serve across the services and I think, for me, without their sacrifice I know that my family made – two of my relatives died in the Second World War on HMS Hood – we might not live in the democracy that we live in.

“So it’s about remembering them, but it’s also about remembering the people that serve (now).”

Kemp added that this year’s appeal is also looking at and thinking about the “damage” that serving can do to people “in terms of their mental health”.

The TV presenter joined his father’s old regiment, 1 Royal Anglian, for an Afghanistan-based documentary, which aired in 2008, where he discovered what life was like for soldiers on the front line.

The RBL, which is the country’s largest armed forces charity, was formed in 1921 in the aftermath of the First World War and the charity launches a poppy appeal every autumn to raise money.

The first London Poppy Day was in 2006.