Page 4 - BNVTA CAMPAIGN Summer 2020

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campaign Summer 2020
A Message from the Chair
Dear Member,
Welcome to the Summer edition and a Medal Campaign Update.
After adjusting for six months into a new way of life, where the whole world engaged a new invisible enemy in the form of the coronavirus, it seems life won’t return to a normal routine anytime soon. Despite an easing of lockdown in the four UK nations, many people have suffered a very difficult time after losing family and friends, the inability to visit loved ones in hospital, restrictions on funeral attendances, lack of physical contact, difficulties with shopping,
a halt to outpatients’ appointments and surgical procedures, delays in diagnosis and health management. The coronavirus has affected everyone, but has had a devastating effect on vulnerable people in society, including older people, those living alone, people with immunity issues, and those suffering from acute and chronic health conditions.
Our British nuclear test veterans often straddle one or more of these groups due to age and disability, and, after speaking with many veterans, wives, widows and descendants on the phone over the past weeks, the message of suffering from social isolation and loneliness comes through time and time again.
The BNTVA has responded to these issues by securing a major grant from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust to connect veterans in our shortly-to-be-unveiled website, and address emotional and mental health issues through additional services. Veterans have made it very clear that they have differing preferred methods of communication, and we have listened. We are looking to embed zoom conferencing on the website for virtual meet ups, and separate chat rooms for veterans, wives, widows and descendants.
For those who prefer chatting over the phone, we are introducing Telephone Friendship Groups for up to six people at a time for a weekly hour-long chat.
We have been contacted by dozens of veterans, who, due to staying at home as a result of COVID-19, have been searching out photos, and relaying accounts of time spent at the British nuclear tests. Part of the grant funding we have been awarded will be used to digitise photographs, as well as collate oral stories of time spent at the tests. All stories are important to this collection, whether recounting witnessing the bomb, cleaning up
fallout, or tales of everyday life
– in fact, anything you would like to share.
2020 has also seen both VE and VJ celebrations as we remember the end of the Second World War, and the advent of nuclear weapons by the Americans at Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. It feels both strange and unfair that 75 years on from the destruction of this first uranium bomb, the British nuclear test veterans who have been exposed to ionising radiation at the hand of the MOD, still haven’t achieved tangible recognition from the British government. Chloe Smith MP, wrote to our patron Sir John Hayes MP in June, stating that the BNTVA's claim for medallic recognition has been passed to the Advisory Military Sub-Committee. We await the outcome of their next meeting, yet are currently unaware when the meeting will take place..
Ceri McDade
UniDip (Theol.) PGCert (M.H.Psych) PGDip. (Soc.Res.)
BNTVA Chair