The Hero Inside (Help for Heroes) - Quiller Publishing

_‘Today the word ‘hero’ is too often used; for me it is a very special word and should be used sparingly: a hero is someone distinguished by exceptional courage, nobility and fortitude. This wonderful book by Gill Shaw is to raise funds for just such men and women injured in the line of duty whilst serving our country - REAL heroes’ Ross Kemp, Patron of Help for Heroes._

This book came to my attention when I was looking on the Help ...
...supporter of the charity as my husband is a soldier and so too are my brother and his wife. For me it is a wonderful charity which is dong so much for our injured soldiers and personally I think it is the only way people are finding out the true extent as to what some men and woman are going through to fight for this country.

The book is a paperback and has a picture of Joanna Lumley with Major Peter Norton who lost a leg in service. ... more

_‘Today the word ‘hero’ is too often used; for me it is a very special word and should be used sparingly: a hero is someone distinguished by exceptional courage, nobility and fortitude. This wonderful book by Gill Shaw is to raise funds for just such men and women injured in the line of duty whilst serving our country - REAL heroes’ Ross Kemp, Patron of Help for Heroes._

This book came to my attention when I was looking on the Help For Heroes charity website in their shop. I am a supporter of the charity as my husband is a soldier and so too are my brother and his wife. For me it is a wonderful charity which is dong so much for our injured soldiers and personally I think it is the only way people are finding out the true extent as to what some men and woman are going through to fight for this country.

The book is a paperback and has a picture of Joanna Lumley with Major Peter Norton who lost a leg in service. The Help for Heroes logo is at the top of the book and the title is at the bottom. The back cover of the book has 5 paragraphs which have been written by a variety of people commending the work that the charity has done.

The paragraph which I opened with is from the forward in the book which was written by Ross Kemp, he is a patron for the charity and so was privileged to be asked to write the forward. I think he put a lot of thought into what he wrote and it really is an excellent way to start this book.

There is no real story to the book, it has been complied from short stories from injured soldiers and also fund raisers. I did at first think that this would be quite a sad book but after reading the first few stories I realised just how different it really is. The soldiers who talk of their accident and loosing limbs have done so with their normal squaddie humour. There was one in particular which did make me laugh out loud, Marine Ben McBean talks of when he was blown up by a bomb and how he saw his leg standing alone on the floor, his arm was broken and twisted around 4 different ways and his testicle was hanging out battered on the floor but the first thing he thought was ‘someone take a photo’! For me this is how the men and women deal with the trauma and I really enjoyed reading it as it made for very interesting stories. Don’t get me wrong there are some heart wrenching reads in here but the way the injured talk about it really does make me feel pride in them for getting over it with such courage and not letting their injuries and limb loss ruin the rest of their lives.

We do have stories from the public in the book talking how they heard what the charity was doing and just had to do their little bit, things from sponsored swims to 3 peaks challenges are just some of the stories which we are told. For me it really does mean so much to read how ordinary people who have no connection to the forces are willing to raise money for the soldiers as one day my husband, brother or sister in law may be needing the charities help.

There are lots of photographs in the book which are nice to see as it puts names to the faces of the people in the stories and made them seem more real. Some of the photos are a bit upsetting at first but then when you see the face of the person with a massive smile it just shows that they are not feeling sorry for themselves and getting on with things.

I was surprised when I read that the charity was formed by just 2 people who thought they would try and raise a bit of money to how it has become such a high profile cause now and we do get a nice paragraph from both of the people who formed this and I found their story to be very inspirational and it really did make me think about doing something to raise awareness and money myself.

The book has128 pages and on some of them there are 3 or 4 short stories which means that there are around 150 in the book. I was published by Quiller and is available on the Help for Heroes Website, I will give the address of this site at the end and it can also be purchased in Tesco with £3 from every copy going directly to the charity.

The photographs were taken by Gill Shaw who has a son in the Army, she is a professional photographer and went into this book whole heartedly so she could bring the plight and courage of these soldiers to the attention of the public. I think she deserves a lot of credit as she did travel to Afghan and Iraq to take some of the photos which are featured in the book. I commend her for her stunning photos and her willingness to promote this book for the charity. I was also surprised to read a paragraph which thanks Tesco’s at the back of the book as they put time, effort and money into helping with the publishing and promoting of the book.

I would have to say that this book is not for children as they may find some of the stories upsetting and may find some of the photo a bit disturbing. I would say that if you have a child that is affected by a parent or family member being injured in the war then reading this with them may help them understand that there is some hope and the injuries can be overcome. I would say to read this with a child so you can determine which parts are read and which are not.

Overall I think this is a wonderful book which brings the reality of our soldiers to more people and I think that it was nothing like what I was expecting as all of the stories do have happy endings, even when someone has lots several limbs they always end by telling us how they overcome their difficulties, I think it is made more special by the photos which show us the real heroes of the country. I think this is a wonderful read with you all will enjoy.

For Heroes website - www.helpforheroes.org.uk

 

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