ON Saturday June 5, members and friends of the York Branch of the Parachute Regimental Association made a street collection in the city centre. We realised that we had chosen an appropriate day to collect on behalf of a Service Charity, but we were overwhelmed by the generosity of citizens and visitors.

In seven hours, 11 collectors received £3,264, three times more than we have ever collected in previous years.

The vast majority of the paras who landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944, and later in the same year at Arnhem, were conscripts and are not in receipt of service pensions. We seek to provide for them the necessities and comforts which make their later years tolerable.

The contributors to the collection have helped to do just that, and we thank you.

D Marshall,

Chairman,

York Branch of the Parachute Regimental Association.

Updated: 11:07 Monday, July 05, 2004