Flower Power

Yvette Beer, a veteran of the Army Royal Logistics Corps, served in the First Gulf War and in Bosnia before being medically discharged in 1997. Then her life changed…

- Claire Saul

I was on the Gulf War Syndrome programme, for Gulf veterans who experienced a range of symptoms post-war, such as chronic fatigue and nerve pain,” explains Yvette.

“Then while I was out running one day, I had a stroke, a massive infarction and bleed to the brain. I had been training to get into the police force but suddenly, everything changed. I was left with long-term health problems, including a neurological condition called dystonia which causes uncontrollable muscle spasms down my left side.

“It is now controlled with regular treatment, without which I just don’t think I would be functioning at all.

“Back then, aged 29, my life went on hold. I used to live for the day, I hadn’t really planned for the future and certainly not the one now facing me. I’d lost everything, my trade and my skills – it all came as a real shock.

“By the time I turned to the British Legion for support I was also struggling financially as I had been a single mum since 2004. My daughter had been born two months prematurely and is profoundly deaf. She had also contracted meningitis when she was around one year old.

“The Legion supported me for several years and I began volunteering at my local Plymouth branch too, has a drop-in support for veterans.