Some of Help for Heroes biggest projects are Personal Recovery and Assessment Centres (PRACs), which serve the charitys principal purpose of providing care and support for service personnel. Once the wounded have been rehabilitated back to health at Headley Court, PRACs serve the function of providing aftercare through their holistic life skills course and fun activities to get the wounded, sick and injured back into what they enjoy doing most.

Help for Heroes works to provide and maintain five tri-service PRACs; in Tidworth, Colchester, Catterick, Plymouth and Edinburgh. The Defence Recovery Capability is a Ministry of Defence initiative, and they work with Help for Heroes and other service charities such as the Royal British Legion to provide a high level of care for members of the Armed Forces in these centres.

The flagship of Help for Heroes five UK wide PRACs is Tedworth House, situated in the Garrison town of Tidworth in Wiltshire. Tedworth House is a facility which offers support for all service personnel, whether they are or were in the Army, Navy or RAF. Set in a stunning Grade 2 listed stately home, Tedworth has a pivotal role in the recovery process for members of the Armed Forces. It can accommodate over 50 residents and many more day visitors at any one time, providing facilities such as a state-of-the-art gym and once at a full operating capacity, it will offer a sports complex with specialist adapted equipment and a swimex, a range of courses, classes and trips offering help and education, and acting as a meeting point to promote socialising with other servicemen and women. Service personnel can seek lifestyle advice from trained professionals on money management, employment, relationships, housing and prosthetic limbs, among a huge range of other topics.

It cost Help for Heroes ?17m to turn the stately home into the PRAC it is today. To understand the scale of the project, 6,300 miles of cabling were used throughout the house for power, telephones and computers and fire systems, 8 tonnes of Emulsion paint was used and over 6,500 items of furniture and other items have been identified and ordered. Despite this, the huge renovation project took just 16 weeks to complete, and it is expected that the house will be operating at full capacity by September 2012. ?15 million has so far been funded to cover running costs for the next 10 years, enabling Help for Heroes and other service charities offer support until at least 2012.

Tedworth House is already one of Help for Heroes proudest achievements and it wouldnt have been possible without the support from the fantastic British public. The venue will enable service personnel to become stronger, healthier and generally more inspired, and Help for Heroes is hoping that donations will allow them to continue their work, providing support for service personnel for many more years to come.

The Help for Heroes shop sells a range of merchandise which supports the charity. Buy their clothing, accessories and other items to show your support for injured service personnel.

Shop at Help for Heroes

It is only with the support of the public that Help for Heroes can continue its great task. So while supporters of the charity must allow themselves a pat on the back for raising the staggering amount of over ?128m in under five years – the key message to everyone is, Dont stop now!

Bryn Parry OBE, CEO and Co-founder of Help for Heroes said:

“We may not be able to prevent our blokes and girls being hurt, but together we are helping them get better. Thank you all for all you are doing and please keep it up!”
Help for Heroes is now engaged in its next big project, one that will take the wounded on their next step along the Road to Recovery – Personnel Recovery Centres. The Charity is working with the MoD, The Royal British Legion and key service charities to deliver a comprehensive pathway to help launch wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women back into the next phase of their lives.

The sums involved are huge, with Help for Heroes committing to raise more than ?163m to build Personnel Recovery Centres in Colchester, Catterick, Tidworth and Plymouth. They aim to provide comprehensive support to servicemen and women who become wounded, injured and sick while providing accommodation in a relaxed and caring environment. Huge-scale building and renovation programmes have already commenced, with accommodation facilities, social areas, family rooms and state of the art gymnasiums being created in the new build centres (Colchester, Catterick and Plymouth) and in the listed building Tedworth House (Tidworth).

Bryn Parry OBE added:

“The Road to Recovery is a very long and hard path, these are young men and women today but they will grow old. We at H4H want to ensure that when the current level of public support has passed, as it inevitably will, they are not forgotten; they deserve the best and we are doing our best to get it”.

Please support Help for Heroes and help our brave soldiers, sailors and airmen on their Road to Recovery.

The Help For Heroes store contains a huge range of H4H merchandise to raise profits to help the charity. Browse their range of clothing, accessories, sports accessories, home and garden and stationary and media products to show your support for this worthy cause.

Charity merchandise at the Help for Heroes shop