Paralympian Joe Townsend visits veterans’ mental health charity

Paralympian and former Royal Marine, Joe Townsend visited veterans’ mental health charity Combat Stress last week at their Surrey based treatment centre to hand over the funds he raised for the charity.

Joe got involved with Combat Stress last year after taking part in the #22PushupChallenge, a viral social media campaign that aimed to raise awareness and support for veterans’ mental health. Putting his own spin on the challenge Joe completed an alternative type of push-up, called planche push-ups and encouraged supporters to donate by adding an extra push-up for every donation. On the final day of the challenge Joe completed over 100 push-ups, a personal best.

During his visit last week, Joe presented over £800 to Fundraising Manager, Garry Burns, taking his fundraising total to over £2,000. Joe also met employees and veterans at the treatment centre to learn more about the work the charity does to support ex-servicemen and women with mental health problems.

Sue Freeth, Chief Executive of Combat Stress said;

“We’re so grateful to Joe for visiting Combat Stress and taking the time out of his busy schedule to support the #22PushupChallenge in such spectacular fashion.

“We continue to see an increase in demand for our services, in the past five years we have received almost 10,000 referrals, an increase of 71%. It is vital that we raise awareness and funds for the charity to ensure we can continue to help every veteran that comes to us for support. That’s why support from individuals like Joe is so important to us.”