Page 20 - The Sandbag Times Issue No:53

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ALL CALL SIGNS
The Breakthrough New Project Which
Saves The Lives of Veterans
Throughout The UK
uring last year, I had the
pleasure of speaking to a
Dveteran from my old battalion.
Daniel Arnold, a veteran from 2nd Bn
Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment
(the Tigers), told me of his intention
to start a ground breaking new
project where, in the case of veterans
go missing, an alert beacon is put in
place and is sent out through social
media. As you will read, this has (either through aiding the police or
been a great success and has saved actually finding them and bringing
lives. them to safety). Two Beacons have
unfortunately ended with bodies
It this month’s SBT, we are honoured being recovered and two are still
to feature All Call Signs and bring you ongoing.
an update on the project by the guys
that have made it all happen. One notable success story was an All
Call Signs subscriber who works in a
All Call Signs hotel, had served breakfast to one of
our missing veterans that morning.
It’s coming up to our 6th months The police were able to go and speak
since we started this venture to him directly on the back of that
(already!), and in that time we’ve information, which led to his safe
managed to grow exponentially. return.
When we last spoke we had just We have been campaigning on behalf
launched. Our Beacon Application of veterans for improvements in the
(for recovering at risk troops when provisions surrounding mental health,
they go missing) had a very modest this has seen us speaking directly
300 subscribers and our chat with members of parliament and even
application was being manned by 30 having a round table discussion with
volunteers. the deputy defence secretary Gavin
Jones MP to discuss our ideas and
Since then, Beacon has grown to proposed solutions. We have seen
3,500+ users, our chat application is positive change, including the
the largest peer support network in government announcing they will
the UK with 330+ dedicated support instruct coroners to record veteran
listeners, all with a military suicide correctly; a key necessity to
background. We consistently see new ensure better funding and awareness
chats of around 50 per week being of veteran suicide.
started on the network and regularly
signpost to other charities and We have also forged strong ties and
organisation for everything from working relationships with other
housing and work opportunities to organisations working for veterans
therapy for mental health issues. such as The veterans Charity, Royal
British Legion and we will be working
We’ve launched 22 Beacon Alerts, closely in the future to improve
this is a call to action that goes out to veteran’s lives. This approach
all subscribers in order to ensure any coupled with our podcast, PTSD and
veterans or service personnel at risk me, which we started to talk about
are recovered before making a poor what it is to live with PTSD and inform
decision. To date, 18 Beacons have people how they can manage and
been resolved, 8 with direct support loved ones who may be
intervention from a Beacon subscriber struggling too, has seen a huge
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