Doncaster war hero offers help to charity for homeless veterans

Joining Lance Bombardier Parkinson as a public face of the Help 4 Homeless Veterans charity, is his mother Diane Dernie. Newly appointed as a trustee, she battled with the Ministry of Defence to give better help to seriously injured Service personnel following her son’s injuries.

The former paratrooper from Doncaster is the British Army’s most severely injured survivor of the Afghanistan conflict.

Having lost both his legs after the Land Rover he was in was blown up by a Taliban bomb, and suffering dozens more injuries while on duty in the war-torn country in 2006, the 30-year-old has shown admiral resolve - and recently attempted to canoe 250 miles down the Yukon River in Canada.

Help 4 Homeless Veterans has also welcomed two other new members: Paul Weston, a former Army captain who retrained as a solicitor and works for Irwin Mitchell, and Doncaster Councillor John Healy.

Meanwhile, Steve Bentham-Bates, an employment consultant for the Regular Forces Employment Association in South Yorkshire, has become the charity’s new chief executive officer.

Tom Wood, the charity’s founder, said: “With this fresh team I hope that the charity can build upon its success to date helping around 200 veterans and expand its support initially around South Yorkshire, but in time further afield.

“There is an ongoing need for this type of help and our charity fully intends to meet the demand when and wherever it can.”