17 hours ago
Lord Kitchener centre's £1m appeal to continue helping veterans holiday in Lowestoft
Rob Setchell spent the day at the Kitchener's to find out what it means to those who rely on it
A charity which provides seafront holiday accommodation to veterans and emergency service workers has launched an appeal to try to secure its future.
The Lord Kitchener Memorial Holiday Centre was set up in a Grade II listed building in Lowestoft, Suffolk, in memory of one of the nation's war heroes more than a century ago.
It has offered discounted accommodation to veterans and their families for decades but the building, which is now 180 years old, is in desperate need of repair - with the re-wiring of the electrical system and new windows a priority.
An appeal has been launched to try to raise £1m to allow the charity to continue helping veterans and secure the building's future.
General manager Duane Ashworth - whose late son Lance Corporal James Ashworth died in Afghanistan in 2012 and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross - said: "There are 2.4 million veterans in the UK and Northern Ireland - 300,000 alone in Suffolk.
"All we're looking for is a pound from every veteran - or half of them and that would give us a million pounds.
"If everybody can be part of [the campaign] then we'll reach our target in no time at all."
As well as offering cheap breaks to the coast, the centre also provides fortnightly veteran's breakfasts, armed forces coffee mornings, and Sunday carveries for the community.
Scott Taylor, 55, a former RAF veteran, is one of those who has benefited, and said meeting and talking with other ex-service men and women at the centre helped to improve his mental health.
He said: "This place isn't just a guesthouse. To a lot of us, it's been a lifesaver.
"I don't want to sound dramatic, I don't like being like that, but if it wasn't for this place I'm not sure I'd be here."
Billy Baxter, 61, a former staff sargeant in the Royal Horse Artillery, lost his sight after service in Bosnia in 1996. He moved to Lowestoft from Wales and said Kitchener's helped him to settle in the area.
He said: "I felt at home here straight away. It was like walking through those doors for the first time, this old building gave me a hug."
Phillippa Fisk's husband Jack was based in Lowestoft during the Second World War serving on Navy minesweepers.
Since he died in 2008, Mrs Fisk has been staying at Kitchener's as a way of feeling close to him.
She said: "I feel as though I belong here. I feel comfortable here. I just love coming up here."
Although lots of hard work has been done in recent years to patch up the Georgian building, Mr Ashworth admits it now needs major work.
He said: "Unfortunately you can only plaster and do first aid on a building for so long.
"Our wooden sash windows are rotted through but we are a grade II listed building in a conservation area which makes things doubly difficult. £65,000 is a lot of money for us to find to get that work done.
"Ideally we are looking at just shy of half a million pounds to get all the electrical work done, bringing that up to spec, a new lift [which costs] £100,000, new furniture for the bedrooms.
"The knock-on of the windows being so porous and letting rain in [is] we're constantly having to refresh the curtains, the furniture, the carpets.
"It's just a constant uphill battle at the moment."
"The guesthouse is running at a profit, but unfortunately the maintenance is just sucking it up."
