Heroic gathering's debut in Perth

Jan 28 2011 by Denis Brown, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

PERTH’S McDiarmid Park will host a historic event in April when Help for Heroes’ top brass headline the forces’ charity’s first ever Scottish gathering.

Playing a strategic role in the Fair City coup is Perthshire H4H county coordinator and army veteran Mike Dickinson.

McDiarmid bosses are providing facilities for free and heading up the gathering will be the veterans’ charity’s chief Mark Elliot and national coordinator Belinda Mitchell, making their first major sortie over the border.

Also descending on Perth for the April 14 event are H4H coordinators from across Scotland, including Aberdeen, the Borders, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Fife, Morayshire, Ross-shire, Argyll, Kinross and the Isle of Lewis.

Special guests, yet to be confirmed, include heroic veterans with injuries sustained in war-torn Afghanistan and Iraq and currently recovering in the H4H-funded Edinburgh-based Erskine Personnel Recovery Centre.

Efforts are also being made to draft in military personnel from Harden Troop at the Royal Marines’ Condor base in Arbroath.

Mr Dickinson told the PA that the hush-hush event had taken months of hard work and behind-the-scenes planning.

“This is the first time that H4H HQ staff have endeavoured to cross the border and I intend to make it a worthwhile visit,” he said.

“I’ve been pushing for this event for a while as they’ve been conducting meetings all over England but never in Scotland, so it’s only fair that we get a face-to-face meeting as well. There will be a team meeting in the morning, and I am inviting as many supporters and fundraisers as I can to meet the HQ team and get up to date information on what the charity is striving to achieve.”

Major supporters from all four corners of Perthshire are to be invited, including Georgina and John Bullough of McEwens of Perth, whose Rock the Catwalk event raised a total of £28,000 for H4H last year.

“I’m also inviting the Steuart Fotheringhams who have held several events at Murthly Castle and raised thousands of pounds, and the people from the House of Bruar who have been collecting since day one,” he said.

“Many other volunteers who have helped with various events are also attending but too many to mention.”

Dignitaries expected to attend include Perth Provost John Hulbert and Perth SNP Pete Wishart, the former Runrig keyboard player who last year performed with political band, MP4, at a H4H fundraiser in Hull.

Since its October 2007 launch, the H4H organisation has raised £84 million to help returning servicemen and women.

“Some people often say to me, ‘isn’t that enough?’, but frankly, it’s not,” said Mr Dickinson.

“We have a wish-list of projects to fund, more personnel recovery centres around the UK, including a second one for Edinburgh – at the moment there are seven centres in the UK.

“There are also many other initiatives in the pipeline and we are working very closely with other military charities to make these become a reality.”