British Karate Federation donate £13,000 to Help For Heroes

BKF donate £13,000 to Help For Heroes

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On Wednesday the 21st October myself, along with WKF, EKF, and BKF member Mike Dinsdale, and Osteopath and BKF Sports Injury Specialist, Dave Inman, flew to Glasgow in our roles as British Karate Federation representatives to present a cheque  to Help for Heroes representative, David Gardiner.

The cheque was the culmination of various fund-raising efforts over the last 8 weeks by members of the BKF, including bag-packing at Asda's and collections at the BKF Championships in Edinburgh. Also at the presentation were BKF President Terry Connell, along with Danny Thomson, who has been a major force behind the fund-raising, his business partner Lynne, and former SKGB Chairman Donald McInnes, who has brought his group on board to assist with the ongoing fund-raising.

The cheque totalled £13,000 and was handed over in the presence of Royal Marine Commanding Officer, Colonel Hughes, and some of his soldiers who attended the BKF Championships in September.

This is the first event organised on behalf of the BKF's adopted charity and is to be followed in early March next year with Dave Inman running in the Bath half-marathon.

(Further details of how to continue the good work and donate towards Dave’s run will be published in the near future.)

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all those present for making it a memorable day for everyone, especially Richard Greenwell and his team, who laid on a special lunch for us all. Greatly appreciated! Thanks must also go to Mike Stark for coming along to take the photographs on the day.

The biggest thank-you however, must definitely go to all of you spectators, competitors, referees, and the general public who have dug deep over the last few weeks to enable us to raise such a substantial sum. From individuals to families, from organisations such as SKGB, ASKF and Shitokai, the Kobe Osaka, who raised over £2,000, Donald McInnes  who made a substantial contribution, and to shoppers and others too numerous to mention, we would like to thank you all for the generosity you have shown in our quest to support our wounded Armed Forces personnel.

The BKF intend to periodically organise fund-raising events for H4H, but this role is not the sole right of the organisation. As an example, Scottish President Paul Giannandrea donated a percentage of the profits from his own groups' championships to round the total up to the final figure. There are also other supermarket "bag-packings" arranged, plus a sponsored silent kata lesson from Shitokai, Terry Connell's organisation, who are going to donate 25% of the proceeds from all of their future fund-raising events to H4H.

Should anybody have any suggestions as to how they would like to support our efforts then please get in touch and we will give you all the publicity we can through the BKF web-site, (plus, hopefully, the individual home countries sites as well.)

Remember, we are not supporting a political cause, we are endeavouring to raise funds to buy equipment and supply assistance to young men and women who have become victims of terrible injuries caused in the performance of their duties.

Mike Billman.
Vice-President.
British Karate Federation. 

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