National Armed Forces Day: 'Massive deal' for Scarborough says charity

Today marks 100 days until Scarborough hosts the national Armed Forces Day event in June

Author: Karen LiuPublished 17th Mar 2022

A charity for veterans in Scarborough says the town hosting the national Armed Forces Day this Summer is a massive deal.

The FirstLight Trust, which has branches around the UK, offers support to the ex-military and their families.

Today marks 100 days until the event on Saturday the 25th of June.

Dorinda Wolfe-Murray, Chief Executive of the charity, said: "After all the cancellations, I don't think anybody can quite believe it's actually going to happen because it's been just a nightmare. We're sort of going around saying 'OK, so what are we going to do?' because it's going to be packed here as we know. We were established in Scarborough in 2012, so this was the first café hub, so it's very important to us.

"For Scarborough it's really special. It's sort of steeped into its DNA for want of a better description. It's the hub that we support the most veterans in. There's a huge, huge contingent of veterans and current serving in Yorkshire and having the event in Scarborough is really special.

"Seeing what happened to Afghanistan and Ukraine is really, really tough, so we're seeing a massive up spike in desperate cries for help from us both in Scarborough and nationally. It doesn't go away that stuff, so if you're going to give money have a look at what makes you comfortable.

"In their DNA, they're trained to protect. They signed up to basically fight for Queen and country and put their lives on the line, so to see what's happening somewhere else and not be able to do anything about it and particularly to children is a nightmare for them."

Find out more about the FirstLight Trust here: https://www.firstlighttrust.co.uk/

First for all the latest news from across the UK every hour on Hits Radio on DAB, at hitsradio.co.uk and on the Rayo app.