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CAMPAIGN Spring 2022
Ken McGinley
We are truly horrified that such a fine, elderly and gravely ill man such as Ken was used in this manipulative way by someone who knows better and that nonfactual statements were made by the reporter about a trustee and staff member of the BNTVA.
We are delighted to have built a great relationship with our founder, Ken, over the past year and we appreciate his input and wisdom within the BNTVA. Equally, we are very sad to see that he is so gravely ill with lung cancer and wish him well.
We are truly shocked that the reporter, purporting to support the British nuclear test veterans, should state untruths to the pioneer of the whole British nuclear community to boost a story and gain an outcome at any cost.
We owe so much to Ken through his arduous work and individual help with thousands of nuclear test veterans and their families. We do not expect Ken or any other veteran to be used in this way in order to write a story or influence other groups.
As the UK's premier charity for British nuclear test veterans and their families, we will continue to call out such scheming and abhorrent behaviour, even if
we meet with backlash on social media or by any other communicative method.
Please let us know on 0208 144 3080 if you ever experience an approach from anybody using similar tactics.
Statement by from the original founder of the British Nuclear Test Veterans' Association, Ken McGinley
To Whom it May Concern
Sunday May 8th, 2022
My name is Ken McGinley, aged 83 (address included). I am the former chairman of the British Nuclear Tests Veterans’ Association, an organisation I founded and which became officially recognised on May 5th, 1983.
On or about March 21 this year I was telephoned by a reporter for the Daily Mirror newspaper (name supplied) who has done many articles on the nuclear veterans over the years. I have spoken to the reporter on quite a number of occasions. The reason they rang me was to tell me about some startling new evidence they had uncovered regarding the nuclear tests.
They told me they had unearthed official documents showing the true scale of damage caused to nuclear veterans by radiation, a fact that they said had been covered-up by successive governments for 34 years. They reeled off a long list of facts and figures which they said was proof that governments knew all along that the extent the men were affected.
The reporter said the final proof had come to light in documents only just released by the government and put out on the day Vladimir Putin launched his attack on Kiev, implying this had been done by the government to bury the story.
I didn’t really understand the blizzard of details they were coming out with, but conceded that if it was true it could be very important.
We both agreed that Alan Rimmer, the editor of Fissionline, a magazine for nuclear veterans, of which I am an editorial director would be interested in this new information. But they insisted I mustn’t let Mr Rimmer know yet, but I could in a day or two.
They made me promise not to tell, but I broke my promise because I was flustered and couldn’t really believe that Mr Rimmer, whom I have known for 40 years as someone with his ear very close to the ground regarding nuclear matters, was unaware of this so-called new information.
Mr Rimmer told me he had no idea where this bombshell new information came from or what it was about.
We agreed to see what the Daily Mirror published before we did anything else. The article was duly published on March 22, quoting me in graphic tabloid terms, largely inaccurately but I’ve come to expect that from newspapers.
One thing the report said was that I had blood cancer, which I do not. On the same day of publication, I received in the post a package of papers from the reporter. These were apparently the new evidence they referred to in their article. I went through them, but soon realised that they were “old hat” as