Paratroopers are soldiers who’re specially trained to deploy into battle by parachute. Their role is uniquely dangerous, and it requires a particular type of solder. They’re regularly expected to fight behind enemy lines – outnumbered and against the odds.
Support Our Paras are a charity that work with The Parachute Regiment and the Airborne Forces. We caught up with Natalie Urbaniak, Head of Fundraising and Communications at Support Our Paras to find out more about the charity.
What is Support Our Paras?
Support Our Paras is the only charity that solely supports the Airborne community.
We look after veterans, serving soldiers and their families. We’re there for our nation’s paratroopers through the good times and the bad, from the moment they join our family to the sounding of the last post.
When was Support Our Paras set up and why?
We were originally set up in 2009 as The Parachute Regiment Charity to support serving and retired members of The Parachute Regiment. We helped with grants for training and welfare assistance.
Over the years, we’ve merged with other charities to unify our support. We’ve created a single point of contact and assistance for our paratroopers to identify with, and they can approach us as their ‘go to’ charity.
In 2014, we acquired The Parachute Regiment Afghanistan Trust, which was set up after our soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan. Their support focused on supporting the wounded and injured, as well as the families of those soldiers who didn’t make it home.
Then in 2020, we merged with the Airborne Forces Security Fund, which was originally set up after World War Two. They supported Airborne soldiers in their times of need.
At Support Our Paras, we look after them all, whenever they might need us, as one big Airborne family.
How vital are paratroopers?
The UK Government requires a rapid reaction force that can get anywhere in the world as fast as possible. They must act with minimum notice and then deal with a full range of unforeseen contingencies once there, including humanitarian relief, conflict resolution, an evacuation of non-combatants, or full-on, high-intensity warfare. This means the force must move in by air, and often secure, seize or construct an airfield for further support.
Paratroopers are critical to future operational success, so the force is very carefully selected, trained and prepared. The Regiment is the only component of the regular Army that still specially trains and selects its’ own officers and soldiers through a highly arduous selection process, known as ‘Pegasus Company’ or ‘P Company.’ This series of tests is designed to make sure those who’re successful have the physical and mental fortitude to deploy on the most demanding of operations.
The Parachute Regiment are the UK’s elite airborne infantry, and they’re the fighting spearhead of UK’s Airborne Forces – often holding ground to allow forces to arrive. That has always been the case, since their inception in World War Two at the request of Sir Winston Churchill. Today, paratroopers form the core of 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team’s Global Response Force, and the Special Forces Support Group.
They’ve been the ‘first in’ on most military overseas deployment since 1945. The Parachute Regiment has been permanently deployed on operations every single day of the year, every year, since mid-2006. This ranges from largescale, full-unit deployments to discreet, small team activities.
This track record, alongside five-of-the-last-six British Victoria Cross winners being paratroopers, sums up the pedigree of the Airborne soldier and why we must support them.
How do you support the military community?
An important aspect of our work includes promoting the efficiency of The Parachute Regiment. We offer grants to all four battalions of The Parachute Regiment, The Red Devils Army Parachute Display Team and the staff of Pegasus Company, at the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick.
All these soldiers, who’re Parachute Regiment cap-badged, are eligible to benefit from these grants. These grants pay for adventure training when troops are on exercise, benefit Regimental sports teams, and support recreational events for the families of our soldiers. The high tempo, short readiness and global nature of being a paratrooper means that this support is very much needed.
We also offer support to those leaving the military, offering them funding to train for a second career and providing guidance as they start their new life. There are also those who want to push themselves, through sporting greatness or through education. We encourage and support a range of these requests for our soldiers.
What help do you offer veterans?
Any veteran of the British Airborne Forces is eligible to approach us for support. Our specialist welfare team can help with a wide range of things, including but not limited to:
Mental health support
Combating homelessness
Assisting with prosthetics
Getting furniture.
There’s very little that we cannot help with. If we can’t provide something, our team know who can.
Tell us more about Support Our Para’s mental health support.
Our Welfare team is managed and run by Laura, an experienced psychiatric nurse, who offers advice to veterans who’re struggling with their mental health. The team helps veterans access support, including funding for counselling, and guides veterans through agencies to claim compensation or benefits that are owed to them.
Laura, along with our Welfare Manager, Lisa, are on hand to support any Airborne soldier in distress. They also work closely with the Battalions to support serving soldiers. Laura and Lisa also engage with the next of kin of the fallen at The Parachute Regiment’s annual service of Remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum.
How do you help veterans access mobility equipment and adaptations?
This is a slightly more in-depth process. Our Welfare team establish that statutory sources of funding have been claimed before moving forward. Veterans in need of mobility equipment and adaptations will also need an Occupational Therapist’s assessment, which can take from six weeks to six months. Delays with the Local Authority and the NHS in some cases mean wait times can be more than a year. This is often where military charities like Support Our Paras will step in and pay for a private Occupational Therapist report to speed up the process.
We also make sure veterans are signposted to additional social and emotional support networks. This includes linking them in with their local Parachute Regimental Association (PRA) branch, whose members are made up of current and veteran Airborne Forces soldiers.
In some cases, we’ll get a Beacon to visit them. Our Beacons are veteran paratroopers, who volunteer to support others. We’ve selected and trained them to operate at local level using the understanding and personal empathy to support those within the Airborne veteran community when required. We’re incredibly grateful and proud to have the support and wealth of knowledge that’s available to us both through the PRA branches and our Beacons.
How did you celebrate Armed Forces Day?
The spirit of Armed Forces Day is about our hard-working troops getting social interaction and time off with their comrades and families to show that their efforts are appreciated.
The Parachute Regiment is a tightknit family, so we prefer to do this amongst our own on our own special day. We celebrate our Regimental Birthday in early August. All our soldiers, veterans and families are invited for a day of fun, entertainment, and social engagement, funded by Support Our Paras.
This year, we invited some members of Irwin Mitchell to join us for the day and it was great to welcome them to our home.
Tell us more about your upcoming events, and how people can get involved.
Our next event is the PARAS’10 Catterick on Saturday 30 September 2023. PARAS’10, known by many as the Ultimate 10-mile Endurance Race, is based on one of the tests our soldiers must complete during P-Coy test week.
This week of testing is the culmination of a six-month long training period that soldiers must complete and pass before they can earn their maroon beret and join The Parachute Regiment. Our race is centred around the 10-mile event and offers anyone aged 16 and over the chance to complete the course that recruits do in training.
Entrants can run the race, or tactical advance to battle (TAB) the course like our soldiers, wearing boots, trousers and carrying a 35lb Bergan rucksack. We’re very grateful to have the support of the staff and recruits of Pegasus Company during the event. This gives the race a truly authentic feel. Alternatively, we offer a virtual option for those that cannot join us in person.
If you’d like to find out more about PARAS’10, full details can be found on our website.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Our small, dedicated team are uniquely invested in supporting our Airborne community, as over half of us have served in it, are married to it, or are children of it. We understand the pressures that our Airborne soldiers and families endure and are here to support them through it all and beyond. To find out more about the work we do, and why we do it, please visit our website or find us on social media.
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