Help for Heroes

Help for Heroes strives towards 100% effectiveness, aiming to give £1 directly to support wounded service personnel for every £1 it raises – and last year it was able to do even better than that.  This is made possible by its low running costs and merchandise sales.  This is one charity that really does do ‘exactly what it says on the tin’.

Major projects supported by Help for Heroes so far include the construction of Personnel Recovery Centres to provide a launch pad back into normal life for service personnel with serious wounds or long term illnesses; the funding of Individual Recovery Programmes for those whose injuries mean that they will have to move into civilian life; and the development of a new swimming pool and gym at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court in Surrey.

Iceland set out to raise at least £1 million for Help for Heroes during the company’s financial year to March 2011.  In August, we dedicated our annual charity week in our English, Scottish and Welsh stores to raising money for this excellent cause and, as usual, our staff threw themselves into a huge range of fund-raising initiatives. 

Raffles, tombolas, cake stalls, fancy dress days, face painting, quiz nights, bingo, busking, head shaving, sponsored bike rides, jumble sales, marathon runs, kayaking, white water rafting, cricket and football matches, a boxing tournament and a team effort in the Great North Run were just some of the huge range of ways our store and head office staff collected cash for Help for Heroes.  All were generously supported by colleagues and our wonderful customers to raise an incredible total of £740,000 – an increase of more than £300,000 on the sum raised in August 2009, underlining the strength of support throughout the company and the country for the excellent work of Help for Heroes with our wounded service personnel.

Iceland was delighted to be one of the medal sponsors at the fantastic Heroes Concert held at Twickenham Stadium on 12 September 2010.  This drew 60,000 people to see a truly outstanding line-up of musical talent including the reunion of Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow, Tom Jones, James Blunt, Enrique Iglesias, Alexandra Burke, Pixie Lott, Plan B, The Saturdays, Katherine Jenkins with Spelbound, Alesha Dixon and The Wanted.  Hosted by some of Britain’s finest comedians including John Bishop, Kevin Bridges, Jack Dee, Jason Manford and Michael McIntyre, the evening was shown live on BBC One and raised more than £850,000 for Help for Heroes.

On 18 November 2010, the very day when our first store opened in Oswestry in 1970, Iceland held a spectacular 40th anniversary charity ball in aid of Help for Heroes.  All the costs of the evening were borne by Iceland Foods so that the entire proceeds of more than £750,000 could go directly to Help for Heroes, bringing the grand total raised for our Charity of the Year to £1.5 million.

Iceland Chief Executive Malcolm Walker and his wife Rhianydd were delighted to present a cheque for £1,500,000 to Help for Heroes co-founders Bryn and Emma Parry before the Charity Ball, to help the charity continue its great work for the service men and women injured in Britain’s current conflicts.

Click here to visit the Help for Heroes website