• The best place we have ever lived is St Clement, where we have lived for the last 37 years. We have good friends and neighbours here, Green Island beach and restaurant – and the best bus service in the Island!’
• Richard: ‘The most important lesson I learnt from my parents was honesty and respect for others.’
Dawn: ‘For me it was good manners.’
• Richard: ‘Who has had the biggest influence on my life? Dawn.’
Dawn: ‘Richard.’
• Richard: ‘The idea for Holidays for Heroes Jersey was in a sermon by Reverend David Shaw at St Clement’s Parish Church on Remembrance Sunday 2007. After some months, Dawn said it was still on her mind and said: “Let’s try to start a charity providing holidays for soldiers.” The rest is history.’
• Dawn: ‘The most enjoyable and satisfying aspect of running Holidays for Heroes Jersey is knowing that we have provided quality time together for a family after injury has changed their lives.’
Richard: ‘For me, it is seeing our guests relax and benefit from “recognition and respect” as the warmth of a Jersey welcome kicks in during their week’s holiday.’
• ‘One of the most memorable soldiers who has visited us over the years was Ray, who came to stay in 2011. After returning home from his week’s holiday with his wife and son, Ray wrote a heartfelt letter telling us of his severe PTSD [post traumatic stress disorder] from service in the first Gulf War in Iraq. In the previous 12 months, he had tried to commit suicide twice and only just survived the second attempt. But spending a week in Jersey with other veterans and being treated with kindness and respect by everyone he met had changed him dramatically. He attended Armed Forces Day here and it was the first time he had felt strong enough to do that for 16 years. He was going home in a positive frame of mind and wanted to achieve an ambition of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya – which he did the following year.’
• ‘Our favourite spot in Jersey is the sea wall at Green Island. We love sitting there on a sunny day.’
• Dawn: ‘If I could re-live any day of my life again, it would it be meeting Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace when I received my MBE.’
Richard: ‘The day we had afternoon tea at Livingston Island on the very lip of Victoria Falls.’
• Richard: ‘My favourite word? Donations.’
Dawn: ‘Breathe.’
• Richard: ‘The thing that makes me happiest is when Ipswich Town (aka the Tractor Boys) win.’
Dawn: ‘For me, it’s spending time with our sons and daughters-in-law.’
• Richard: ‘Nothing makes me more angry than magpies and seagulls attacking the little birds in our garden.’
Dawn: ‘Bad manners.’
• Richard: ‘If I could introduce any new law in Jersey, it would be a ban on feeding seagulls on land.’
Dawn: ‘I’d like to see a ban on spitting in public.’
• Richard: ‘The song I’d like played at my funeral is There Is a Green Hill Faraway.’
Dawn: ‘I don’t know.’
For more information on Holidays for Heroes Jersey, or to donate, visit www.hols4heroesjersey.org.je
