Our men served their country but were let down in their real hour of need

BACK OUR CALL FOR SUPPORT

- BY JACKIE ANNETT

Joining the Army was so important to Rob Turner that he turned down a chance to train with Birmingham City's youth football squad to become a soldier.

But, instead of celebrating his success on Remembrance Sunday, his mum Dawn Turner is mourning after he took his own life aged 35 in August. Just 19 when he left for his first tour of Afghanistan with the Royal Horse Artillery, he returned with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"His death didn't come out of nowhere," says Dawn, who is speaking in support of our Missed Campaign, run in partnership with the charity Missing People.

"He left the Army in 2015 and started having physical and mental problems and over the years he tried to take his own life four times.

"When he went missing a year before he died he wasn't given the proper support he needed. I didn't feel like the emergency services were trained in veteran trauma.

"We need to introduce specialist crisis intervention for armed forces personnel, so they can access support as soon as they need it, day or night."

According to Beacon Alert, which provides information about missing armed forces personnel, veterans who go missing are 14 times more likely than others to commit suicide.