Mayor's Poppy Appeal pride

Cllr Dave Pickering kicked off the fund-raising driver at the Town Hall this morning, when he urged people to dig deep in honour of the fallen.

Nationally, the Poppy Appeal provides the main source of funds to maintain the Legion's many welfare and benevolent schemes through which over 100,000 people are helped each year.

Since 1921, the Legion’s aim has been to help those members of the serving and ex-service community and last year’s appeal raised a record amount of over £40 million for this purpose.

This year's Poppy Appeal is once again focusing on the support needed for the current Afghan generation of the Armed Forces family.

Since 2003 the Legion has helped more than 10,000 serving, ex-service and family members who have taken part in the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns.

“I am both proud and honoured to launch this year’s Rotherham Poppy Appeal,” said the Mayor.

“The Royal British Legion is a wonderful organisation, which thanks to its extensive fund-raising has been able to provide practical help for servicemen and their families for the past 91 years.

“The organisation does an amazing job of harnessing the generosity of the general public who contribute so much and who I hope will be as generous again this year.”