Hero Lancashire soldier's fundraising efforts now a registered charity (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Hero Lancashire soldier's fundraising efforts now a registered charity

7:00pm Sunday 7th October 2012 in News By Emma Cruces, Reporter

AN EAST Lancashire soldier who was maimed in a bomb blast has seen his fundraising drive made into an official charity.

Sgt Rick Clement of The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment was severely injured in Afghanistan in May 2010. He lost both legs as well as suffering massive internal injuries that left him unable to have children.

After suffering massive injuries when he stepped on an improvised explosive devise he set himself the challenging target of raising £100,000 to make life easier for other injured servicemen and women.

Rick, from Chatburn, and his supporters have been fundraising for four army charities this year. However they were hampered by the fact they did not have an official charity number of their own.

Now Rick’s charity ‘A Soldiers Journey’ has received the official paperwork from the Charity Commission, Rick has stepped up his fundraising drive.

He hopes to have between £30,000 and £40,000 raised by Christmas, with a major event in November to auction the Olympic torch he carried through Blackpool.

He said: “I just want to make sure that the hell I went through when I was injured is made easier for someone else. It’s really important that the best equipment and help is available for people who were in my situation. These things cost a lot of money and the money has to come from somewhere.”

Rick’s website a-soldiers-journey.co.uk was set up in order to give something back to the various charities that helped him and his family on the road to recovery.

During Rick’s recovery, he said he was helped through those dark times by his fiance Leanne, who is now his wife. He says they received wonderful support from the British Limbless Ex-Servicemen’s Association, the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen Families Association, ABF The Soldiers Charity and Help for Heroes.

The website, which will now become the home of the official charity, covers details of numerous raffles, dinner nights, parachute jumps and will climax with Rick completing a swim in the ocean next to great white sharks.

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