Veterans charity is fishing for support after Covid isolation brought many to brink

A former Royal Irish Ranger who has poured his life into a charity offering respite to fellow veterans has said that coronavirus has left ex-servicemen in a very dark place.

Robert Maxwell’s career in the Army ended as a result of serious injuries sustained in a hit-and-run motorcycle crash. Having lost his job, his wife and his home, he knows what it is like to be close to the edge.

Along with other veterans in the Let’s Do charity the 53-year-old ex-lance corporal with the Royal Irish has helped to build a fishing retreat in Co Down with the aim of offering a light at the end of the tunnel to veterans coming to terms with physical and mental injuries and disabilities.

Robert, who lives in a cabin at the retreat in Clough, said through the charity he has learned about people who have chosen a life of isolation because of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and injuries suffered during their service.

He said: “There are veterans who feel abandoned. It’s largely men, in many cases they are no longer part of their family, they live in isolation.”

He said that due to coronavirus lockdown measures the isolation has become even more pronounced with some resorting to suicide.

Robert said: “In this area there’s three have taken their lives since Covid. Two were veterans.

“You get all these organisations and people who are standing on their soapboxes on Facebook, crying into their hands about what’s happening. At least we’re getting up off our backsides and trying to do something about it.”

Let’s Do’s fishing retreat is based at Kennedy’s Bog, located beside farmland owned by Robert’s father.

On the land is a bunkhouse in which veterans can stay overnight and a campfire where they can gather to bond over stories and songs.

Robert said: “At nine o’clock at night the fire’s been burning from a couple of hours before, the glow is coming off it, you can’t put a price on that.”

Let’s Do is a UK-wide charity which would have been most active in the Isle of Man, up until lockdown.

Robert said: “We’ve been running for about five years. Each year we’ve basically been building it up and up – until Covid. We were going to start knocking stuff out of the park.

“We had a couple of setbacks. One was we were hoping to have a major sponsor on board but that didn’t materialise.

“Our ethos is to reach out to people no matter what their issue and try to help them in whatever way you can.

“Unfortunately the Northern Ireland arm of the charity is the only arm that’s operating right now. Our people are feeling a bit isolated.

“I suppose it’s a blessing that we have that otherwise we’d be stagnant.”

He added: “Covid is just a real can of worms. Nobody saw it coming, what it has done for us as a charity it has caused our funding to fall off a cliff.

“This fishing thing, if the restrictions had been even more severe, we’d have had to put the pen through it.

“We’re just lurching from month to month to keep going – it’s such a grind. At the minute we’re just trying to think outside the box to generate funds.”

Robert said the charity was thinking of selling a support vehicle it had purchased to reach out to people who couldn’t travel to the facility in Clough: “It’s an asset. We’ll do whatever we can do to keep going. Obviously we’d rather not have to do that. It would be great to get some financial support or even some volunteers to help out on site.

“There’s so many ex-service organisations out there and it just takes forever to get things done which is terribly frustrating.

“The message would be that we’re open and we’re able to facilitate people who need a break, who fancy doing a bit of fishing. We’re able to socially distance and tick all the boxes for Covid.

“We will remain open right through the winter as well, normally we’d close from November to the middle of March, but we’ll remain open just to be there for people.

“You’ve got to let people know that you are there for them and you’re going to work within the restrictions and invite them to come for a day, a half a day, stay the night, stay the weekend, anything at all to get people out of their houses and interacting.

“Volunteers and fundraisers would be fantastic and would provide a lifeline in our bid to promote better mental health, and a way of helping people through this pandemic.

“For people with mental health issues this is going to be the new norm. An organisation like us is key because we know what we’re doing and we also know how to do it.

“In this scenario there’s no point trying to reinvent the wheel.”

Helped by Nigel Cree, trustee and director at Let’s Do, and other local volunteers, Robert cleaned five to six foot of “pure sludge” from the bottom of the lake when work began on setting up the fishing retreat.

A bridge over the lake was built plus two fishing stands were built to begin with then more recently another two lower level stands were constructed along with a bunkhouse, fishing store, campfire and toilet facility.

Robert said the facility is also disabled friendly.

He said: “Our next target is to have a permanent toilet and wash facilities which will be expensive.

“You’re always playing catch up, you’re never ahead of yourself, the more you do the more you have to do.”

Of the fish stock at Kennedy’s Bog, Robert said: “We’ve a good head of fish. If we got a bit more money we would keep introducing fish. They’re the lifeblood of the facility.

“Beneath the water there’s a struggle for survival. The rudd will eat the insects and the pike will eat the rudd, the perch will eat anything. That’s life in a lake. The battle for survival under the water is mimicked by life above the water. We all have to find different ways to survive.”

l For more information see www.letsdoevents.info