Dave Thompson MSP

Victoria McMillan, 21 years of age, a young Mum and a law student from Aberdeen is doing the Loch Ness 10K run on Sunday the 4th October 2009 to raise funds for Combat Stress.

Also taking part in the run and raising funds for Combat Stress is Dave Thomson SNP MSP for Highlands and Islands. When asked to help Dave didn’t hesitate to offer to come along and join Victoria on the run to support Combat Stress. Dave stated: "as well as raising my fitness levels I am delighted to help Combat Stress which is such a worthwhile cause and I look forward to running alongside Victoria and supporting her on the day."

Combat Stress has never been busier – there has been a 66% increase in the number of new Veterans seeking their help over the last four years. The demand on their services is unlikely to decrease over the short to medium term and the pressure on their very modest resources is growing daily. They are treating soldiers from the world wars through to current day conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and they do absolutely sterling work for those people and their families. Ongoing operations across the Middle East are stretching the limited resources available to them. They have already seen over 300 referrals from Iraq and Afghanistan and they predict that these initial cases are just the tip of the iceberg, as on average Veterans wait more than 14 years before seeking their help. This lengthy time is due to two factors; the first being that it often takes that length of time before their symptoms manifest and the second is that some people sadly do not even know that this organisation is available to them and their families. They therefore expect the coming years to be especially demanding.

Fundraising is so important to them as their services are free to Veterans but provision comes at a considerable cost. Last year they spent in the region of £9million, of which £4.2million was provided by the Veterans Agency (MoD). The rest had to be raised through charitable donations and grants. This year their operating costs are expected to reach £10 million – because of increased demand. This is a vast amount of money for this charity to find.

The following area few examples of what monies raised can help with:

• £30.00 pays for a session of trauma-focused therapy.
• £130.00 pays for a consultation with a psychiatrist
• £293.00 pays for a full day's care at a Combat Stress treatment centre

As you can see from these figures Combat Stress has a huge financial challenge ahead of them for the near and distant future.

Victoria states: "Combat Stress takes care of the nation's forgotten heroes: those Veterans whose wounds are not obvious and who suffer terribly in silence, often for years before seeking help. Please if you can - help us to help those who have already and continue to help and protect us. People can sponsor me by donating online at http://www.justgiving.com/victoriamcmillan3 or by sending a cheque/postal order to Victoria McMillan 32 Margaret Place, Aberdeen AB10 7GB. Even better you could take a sponsor form and get your friends, family and work colleagues to sponsor me too”. If your publication could help make people aware of the event we would be very grateful."