Gloucester Care Worker Gives Herself Marching Orders

20 December 2020

While most people have still to decide if they are going to adopt any New Year resolutions for 2021, Biz Harding, a care navigator with Gloucestershire adult social services has already made hers…She is planning a trip to France with a difference.

Its highlight will be to follow in the footsteps of hundreds of fallen heroes who gave their lives, or were injured on the Normandy beaches during the second World War. She is going to be packing her kitbag in June to walk 22 miles along the seafront that saw the fiercest fighting, aiming to raise at least £1,000 for  Combat Stress, the UK’s leading charity for Veterans’ Mental Health. The money will be used, to help fund aid for today’s members of the forces who finish their tour of duty suffering from ‘combat stress.’

It is now recognised that members of the armed forces are among those most likely to suffer from combat stress, developing issues such as depression, anxiety, alcohol-dependency and post-traumatic stress disorder. In her work Biz is often asked to help those affected by this unseen affliction and she says: I would like to raise awareness as well as the funds to help former members of the armed forces who experience 'combat stress'. I believe that veterans should feel valued and supported to meet the challenges they face in the community.

“If my walk can help raise awareness as well as funds to help former members of the forces who suffer from it I will end the year a happier person.”

 

Anyone wishing to support Biz’s effort can do so through her page for Combat Stress on the Just Giving web site:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bizharding