Each year, the Marathon des Sables challenges runners from around the world to take on the Sahara Desert to run 156 miles in 7 days.

On November 8th, a group of veterans from Walking With The Wounded were invited to take part in the annual Ruck March in New York, ahead of the Veterans Day Parade on November 11th.

This week, Walking With The Wounded celebrated the official launch of Walking Home For Christmas on Tuesday morning with Ex-England and Chelsea star, Wayne Bridge.

Sam Mendes calls on fans to sign up to ‘Walking Home For Christmas’

Imagine, for a moment, life without your support network. Family, friends, colleagues, your partner – even your social network. It may be an impossibility to picture yourself in that position, but nobody plans for their life to spiral out of control, yet for myriad reasons people find themselves in that position every single day- Written by Emma Cook.

Support Care Coordinator (North England Care Coordination partnership: new ways to tackle serious stress in veterans, their carers and families)

With firework season drawing near, many veterans who suffer with PTSD will be preparing for a difficult time of year.

Walking With The Wounded (‘WWTW’) strives to support veterans into independence, and it is fantastic when a veteran that we have supported is able to give back to their community. A few years ago, WWTW used funding to allow one of our veterans-Allen, to receive a pyrography kit.

‘I thought it was going to be the worst Christmas ever but it turned out to be the best. I want to thank Teresa at Walking With The Wounded and everyone who donated for their support – I really didn’t think anyone cared. I was so wrong.’

Mark WWTW's 10th anniversary year with us and our beneficiaries

For nine years, I worked in corporate fundraising, in that role I regularly used evaluation reports but my focus was very much limited to extracting latest headline figures and good news stories that would sound appealing and could be used to generate more funds. I don’t apologise for this - it helped me to make more money for the organisations I worked for to put back into our services – but it wasn’t until five years ago, when I started in a service delivery role at Walking With The Wounded (WWTW), that I really appreciated that evaluation doesn’t end with those soundbites from a report.

In our upcoming series, we are inviting you to meet the elite WWTW team to find out what motivates them, what they are looking forward to and how they are training for the race.

Whilst clearing out his father’s house, Charlie Barne, grandson of Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Barne came across his grandfather’s war diaries. When Charlie moved from out of London to Wiltshire in 2016, he used his commute to type up, edit and annotate the diaries. The result is a fascinating first-hand account of the entire Second World War from the perspective of ‘Churchill’s Colonel’. In honour of his grandfather, Charlie has decided to donate all of the royalties from the book to Walking With The Wounded.

In my previous article, I noted that the diagnosis of mental health issues in veterans has doubled to 3 per cent in the past decade and I discussed the need to destigmatize veteran mental health. We must be careful about saying there is a problem, and not reacting to address this. In this article, I will explore what the veteran care pathway looks like and how it is being supported by military charities.

Next year marks our 10th anniversary and we want to hear from you.

Mental health problems can affect any individual at any time. World Mental Health Day take place on October 10th and it is observed in more than 100 countries. It presents an opportunity to show our support for better mental health provision and that includes looking after ourselves.

Following the highly successful Mental Health Symposium in London this summer, Walking With The Wounded was invited to meet Home Base at their Centre of Excellence in Boston. Home Base is a partnership of the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital; offering world-class clinical care and support, in addition to fitness and mind-body wellness programmes for Service Members and Veterans who struggle with the invisible wounds of war. They also offer counselling and support to family members.

Every year, thousands of servicemen and woman undergo military training building cohesive teams, spending days, weeks and years working, training and fighting together. However, when military personnel leave the Forces and transition into civilian life, they can sometimes feel isolated and experience feelings of loss.

Chris Carlisle has been an IPS Employment Advisor for many years. He joined Walking With The Wounded (WWTW) in February 2016, at the time in partnership with IPS Provider, Enable, part of Shropshire County Council. Since February 2017 Chris has been employed by WWTW directly.

Events & Community Fundraising Executive

Each year, M&S stores across the country nominate a local charity to fundraise for and this year, colleagues at M&S Metro Centre have chosen to support Walking With The Wounded (WWTW) until June 2020.

We are extremely grateful to all of our fundraisers who take on extraordinary challenges to raise money for WWTW. On September 8th, a team from Demob Job LTD took on the Great North Run in aid of our charity and raised an impressive £4,000! The team share their thoughts about their experience below:

The majority of British military personnel leave the Armed Forces and enjoy a smooth transition into civilian life, but for some the shift from military to ‘Civvy Street’ is not so straightforward. Recent statistics from the Ministry of Defence found that diagnosis of mental health issues in veterans has doubled to 3 per cent in the past decade. However, some estimate that this figure could be as high as 10 per cent. Veteran mental health is a complex topic; it is important that we normalise conversations around this matter. This is how real change can happen.

Litterforce Project Officer

Introducing the Walking With the Wounded Great North Run team for 2019...

IPS Employment Advisor Tom

Here are the brave runners taking on the Marathon des Sables to support ex military

Will your team do the Peak, Tough or Tougher?

Following on from the success of Walking With The Wounded's first regional hub in Manchester, plans are well underway for a second hub in Gateshead.

Jake Meyer is talking at the Royal Geographical Society about his recent venture to the world's second highest mountain...

Walking With The Wounded is one of this year's Finalists!

You're invited...

Our Manchester hub has been named as WWTW's second IPS Centre of Excellence for Veterans

ABF The Soldiers' Charity Grant - £40,000 towards WWTW’s work with Army veterans