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Shortlist announced for 2019 RAF Benevolent Fund Awards
The RAF Benevolent Fund has announced the shortlisted nominees for our seventh annual awards. The winners of nine award categories will be revealed at a special ceremony, in London on June 27.
Press Release
"Everyone needs a break"
RAF Benevolent Fund Welfare Care Executive John Hickson explains why the Fund's new wellbeing breaks scheme is much needed among the RAF veteran community.
"Mum was always there for me"
For RAF Corporal Andy Carroll this Mother’s Day will be a chance to sit quietly and remember his mum, Louise, and all she did for him. Sadly, this will be the second year he is without her, after she passed away in January last year. In this guest blog, Andy shares his memories of a wonderful mum.
The sky's the limit for our fundraisers!
Yesterday RAF Benevolent Fund Regional Fundraiser Aaron Tillyer joined a team of more than 30 supporters to jump out of a plane at 13,000 feet!
Gala events pays to tribute to the airmen of the Great Escape
Thousands of people filled London's Hammersmith Apollo and cinemas nationwide on Sunday to pay tribute to the 50 Allied airmen killed in the aftermath of the Great Escape.
Celebrating International Epilepsy Day
Staff at the RAF Benevolent Fund turned the office purple today to celebrate International Epilepsy Day. Also known as Purple Day, the date sees people across the globe coming together to drive awareness on epilepsy and help make a difference to the lives of people affected by the condition.
Airmen of the Great Escape remembered 75 years on
What makes the Great Escape from North Compound, Stalag Luft III in March 1944 so remarkable? The sheer audacity of the incarcerated airmen, their ambition and the scale of the planned breakout.
How pilot Bram Vanderstok found his way to freedom in the Great Escape
Seventy-five years ago to the day, a group of POWs were preparing to crawl to freedom through a 300-foot long tunnel in what would become known as the Great Escape. One of the inmates at Stalag Luft III was Bram Vanderstok, a Dutch Spitfire pilot, and one of only three men to make a 'home run'.
"Without the film, who'd remember the 50 who were murdered?"
Of the 76 who escaped from Stalag Luft III, 50 were handed over to the Gestapo and shot dead. In this blog, former PoW Charles Clarke tells us how The Great Escape film has helped ensure that these men are never forgotten.
"We did it the easy way" – Great Escape film actor meets Stalag Luft III veteran
When John Leyton, now 83, starred in one of the most iconic war films of the 20th century, he knew the story they were telling was a real one.
