Second march over Newport Combat Stress charity cuts
The final plans are being put in place for a march and peaceful sit-in as a protest against cuts at veteran's mental health charity Combat Stress next week.
It's just the latest efforts by those who have visited the Audley Court centre over the years to try to save residential treatment at the site.
Many of them said that without residential treatment, they would have hurt themselves or others.
Now they will march through the town for a second time, and are asking residents to meet them.
They will meet on December 1 as part of a planned sit-in at the Audley Avenue site and they are inviting residents to march with them from Shuker Fields to Audley Court from 12pm.
The veterans will then stay overnight into Saturday morning.
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Pete Neale, who is organising the march, said that it had been tough planning it, but that it was all coming together.
"Things are going really well – we're just hoping that the numbers turn up on the day and over the weekend," he said.
"We've got all the licences we need to collect money in buckets and have informed everybody that needs to be informed.
"It's been hard for me planning, but I've had help from Leanne and Judy who have been brilliant and have helped getting the word out, and also to Peter Scott for helping with stuff on the ground."
Pete said that their next target was to collect enough money to help fund certain treatments.
"We'll be fundraising like crazy," he said. "We've got a meeting with Combat Stress at the end of January to see if we can fund the Monday to Friday overstays. We just need people to help with fundraising and donating."
The veterans last marched through the town in October, with about 50 people turning out to join the cause.
During a meeting with Combat Stress CEO Sue Freeth, they heard that the changes coming to Audley Court, including cutting of residential treatment, would help protect the services the charity provides for the foreseeable future.
Now the Save Audley Court Combat Stress Facebook group is turning its attention to raising awareness, and trying to increase the amount of funding coming from the MOD and NHS.
But last week the NHS revealed that plans to treat veterans with mental health issues via Skype instead of residential treatment could help 448 patients per year nationally, rather than the 224 currently being treated by Combat Stress.
