A charity dinner in Coventry organised by local veteran Gordon Quinney will raise money for Blesma, The Limbless Veterans and Normandy Day UK, a local peace education charity.
The event has been organised to mark the 71st anniversary of the Normandy campaign and will be compered by Coventry comedian Billy Bell.
Guests will include former paratrooper and world record holder Paddy Doyle, 49 from Solihull, who holds 55 world records for endurance sports and Sandra Godley, a gospel singer nominated for a MOBO. Sandra will perform a peace song based on a poem that was written by Gordon and arranged by West Midlands’ composer Andrew Kristy to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day in 2014. In addition to this, the dinner will be attended by surviving D-Day veterans and former Coventry City footballers.
Organiser Gordon says: “I’m 84 next year and used to organise events for Massey Ferguson before I retired. Before that I played semi-professional football for Rugby Town, then coached youngsters such as Tim Flowers. I still keep in touch with some of the Sky Blues players. What better way to do something useful than getting some old friends together to raise some money for good causes that are close to my heart?”
The Meet the Heroes charity dinner starts at 7.00 pm on Friday 12th June at the Britannia Hotel, Fairfax Street. Tickets cost £25 and are available from Carey Stringfellow, on 07887 374002 or by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The money raised for Normandy Day UK will be used to hold a Meet the Heroes awareness raising event in Coventry City Centre on Saturday 27th June (national Armed Forces Day) that will showcase the work of Armed Forces charities to Coventry people.
Coventry-based Normandy Day UK was founded in 2010 by 92 year-old D-Day veteran Dennis Davison to bring old and young people together to celebrate the legacy of peace in Western Europe.
Dennis says: “We are quite a new charity. We have had success with grant applications for our peace education projects, but this is our first public fundraising event. We are very grateful to Gordon for organising what should be a very entertaining evening. Blesma does good work to rehabilitate injured service people and we wanted to share the occasion with them. With a comedian, an after dinner speaker, the chance to meet World War 2 veterans and a gospel singer, it should be a fabulous evening for everyone.”
Blesma, The Limbless Veterans is the national charity for all limbless service men and women, their widows and dependants. It was formed in the years following the First World War and became a national charity in 1932.