#1 Booze + Donating to wounded Vets = Spitfire Ale.
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:11 am
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A fund-raising campaign in support of wounded members of the armed forces is getting a boost from Kent brewer Shepherd Neame.
A Help for Heroes Spitfire Ale is going on sale for six months, with all the brewery's profits going to the charity.
Help for Heroes aims to raise £5m for a swimming pool and gym complex within the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court, Surrey.
About £1.3m has been raised since the appeal began at the start of October.
Shepherd Neame chief executive Jonathan Neame said the special edition Spitfire Ale was in aid of an "outstanding initiative".
"Part of Spitfire beer has always been about charity, we've raised a number of funds over the years," he said.
Public swimming pool
Boxes of the ale are also due to be sent as Christmas gifts to armed forces personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to those being treated at Headley Court.
The centre helps wounded personnel recover from injuries such as burns, head trauma and limb amputations. Help for Heroes has been tasked with improving its facilities.
Appeal chairman Bryn Parry, himself a former Royal Green Jacket with 10 years' experience, said: "At the moment they're being put in the back of a minibus and taken down to Leatherhead, where they're swimming in one lane of a public pool... so I want to change that.
"When some of them are wounded and have to leave [the armed forces], they're heartbroken and that's why we have to look after these people."
Mr Parry said fund-raising with a Spitfire Ale helped "link the service personnel of today with previous war heroes".