RAF troops thank readers for Afghan Appeal gifts

In October and November Biggleswade Chronicle readers kindly donated items to our annual appeal to send Christmas cheer to the forces.

The specially requested gifts included sweets, toiletries, biscuits, crisps and puzzle books. They were packed by youngsters from the Norman Cub Pack in Sandy, the RAF, local dignitaries and organiser, Ken Lynch, in November. They were then posted to the No 3 RAF Tactical Police Wing from RAF Henlow.

The parcels have arrived in Afghanistan and several letters of thanks have been sent back to the cubs, Ken Lynch and the Chronicle readers.

Corporal Aaron Thompson is working in the airport at Camp Bastion in the Combined Passenger Handling Facility of the Air Transport Security Section. He provides protection for passengers flying to and from Camp Bastion.

He wrote: “Thank you all so much for taking the time and making the effort to provide the guys out here with these boxes.

“The treats go down very well as there isn’t a large choice of sweets and treats out here for us to buy.

“One item I was particularly happy to receive was the moisturiser. It’s currently very dry and very cold in Camp Bastion so the moisturiser comes in extremely handy.

“The guys out here get a real morale boost when we receive boxes like these. It’s nice to know that the people in the UK appreciate what we’re doing out here and care enough to put in precious time and effort to send items of this nature.”

Rhiannon, who is also in the Air Transport Security Section, wrote: “We are all looking forward to Christmas here although it will be hard being away from our families, especially those who have children back home but we plan on celebrating it as best as we can.

“All of us girls here seem to have a sweet tooth so we have all thoroughly enjoyed the sweets that were sent out.”

Another wrote: “Parcels or ‘morale’ as we call them are brilliant for raising the troops’ spirits and we cannot thank you enough.”

And a further letter said: “The parcels you have sent are great for lifting our spirits whilst we are away from home and our families.

“It is great to know that people back home (especially near where we are based) are thinking about us.”