Look To The Stars News: Andy McNab

Celebrity Chefs Cook For an Army

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:04:00 -0000

An Army marches on its stomach they say, so it’s entirely appropriate that on the 2nd October, London’s top chefs will be cooking up a five-course feast to raise money for troops wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Chefs for Heroes gala dinner is being spearheaded by The Lanesborough’s chef de cuisine, Paul Gayler, and dished up by an ‘army’ of chefs from the City of London’s top restaurants including Andrew Bennett (Sheraton Park Lane), Gary Klaner (Landmark Hotel), Martyn Nail (Claridges), Paul Bates (Intercontinental, Hyde Park Corner), Simon Young (The Jumeirah Carlton Tower, Knightsbridge) and Matthew Marshall (Chamberlains Events).

They will be joined on the night by many of TV’s favourite chefs who will host a limited number of tables. Imagine exchanging recipes and pleasantries over dinner with Gordon Ramsay, Raymond Blanc or Heston Blumenthal – all of whom are on the guest list! Other celebrity guests include Graham Wellesley, Jeremy Clarkson and Andy McNab.

Having cooked for Royalty and pop icons such as Madonna, Mariah Carey and the late Michael Jackson, Paul’s team of the finest chefs will be serving up the most sumptuous menu (using only the finest and freshest ingredients) to London’s glitterati in a bid to raise £250,000 for Help for Heroes, a charity Paul felt compelled to help after his son Lee was shot in the leg whilst serving with the Territorial Army in Afghanistan.

Paul says, “The situation in Afghanistan is forever in our minds with casualties reported almost daily in the news. Hospitals like Selly Oak and rehabilitation centres like Headley Court are having to deal with ever-increasing numbers of injured servicemen returning home in need of their care. As a father of a wounded soldier, I will be forever grateful for the brilliant care Lee received at the hands of the Headley Court team.”

Help for Heroes raises funds needed for services and facilities like Headley Court to exist. In the next year, the charity aims to raise £20m to fund seven “Hero Recovery Centres” across the UK, providing homes where the wounded can recover, re-skill, and prepare to return to their lives.

The markets of London are kindly donating the ingredients for the evening’s menu, so the proceeds from attendance go direct to Help for Heroes and the true beneficiaries – the returning wounded heroes.

Tickets can be booked at www.chefsforheroes.org. Anyone wishing to sponsor or otherwise get involved in making this evening a success can email richardb@looktothestars.org.

Andy McNab Fights For Combat Stress

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Author and former SAS soldier Andy McNab has written a column in Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper calling on public support for Combat Stress, the ex-Services mental welfare society.

“With thousands of members of the Armed Forces returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is rising dramatically,” wrote McNab, who became a bestselling author after writing Bravo Two Zero in 1993. "I served in the British Army for 18 years: eight as an infantry solider, and 10 in the SAS. I have been captured and tortured as a prisoner of war in Iraq. I have been placed against a wall for a mock execution. I have stood beside friends as they have been shot or blown up in the mud. I don’t think I suffer from PTSD, but I am very aware that I probably just got lucky.

“I’m a patron of [”Help for Heroes":http://www.looktothestars.org/charity/984-help-for-heroes]. We do a lot to help the physical wellbeing of injured soldiers, and we also work alongside the charity Combat Stress. But we need a lot more help if we are even going to begin to treat this condition properly. Combat Stress says it takes an average of 14 years before someone approaches its charity for help. And they usually do that only when their lives have already fallen apart."

Combat Stress was set up over 80 years ago, and has provided over 75,000 veterans of war with a unique lifeline. Currently, they take on 700 new veterans every year, the youngest in their early twenties, the oldest in their nineties. They provide stays at treatment facilities, psychiatric support, and also occupational therapy to help veterans rebuild their lives and provide a break for their families.

“There is a mental health crisis facing those who have served our country,” wrote McNab. “We need to act now, before we discover in another decade that more soldiers have killed themselves since returning from Iraq and Afghanistan than were killed there in action. Our veterans deserve our help, our understanding and a whole lot of respect. And what’s more, they need it now.”

For more information on Combat Stress, visit their website. McNab’s full column can be found at The Telegraph.

The Best To The Brave - Author Auctions Part In New Book For Shackleton Foundation

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:36:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

He is regarded as one of History’s favorite sons and one of the greatest leaders ever to live, and now polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton has been honored by the establishment of a special foundation dedicated to helping inspirational leaders who make a difference to the less advantaged. And in support of this exciting new initiative, British author Andy McNab is offering his fans the chance to have the villain in his next book named after them.

McNab – a former SAS soldier and best-selling author of Bravo Two Zero and Firewall – will auction the naming rights at a Shackleton Foundation dinner to be held on June 25, and expects to raise over $100,000 for the charity.

“I’m delighted to have the opportunity to support this new charity,” said McNab. “Shackleton has always been a hero of mine, and I think the Foundation’s mission to identify similarly inspiring leaders in today’s world is excellent.”

Ernest Shackleton was born in 1874, and in recent years has gained wide popularity for his Antarctic expeditions early last century. Born in Ireland but raised in England among a family of girls, Shackleton first visited Antarctica with Captain Robert Falcon Scott as part of the Discovery expedition in 1901. But it was his second expedition – aboard the Nimrod in 1908 – that put him on the map. Accompanied by three crew members, the explorer got to within 97 miles of the South Pole, which at that point had still never been reached by humans. But despite being so close to their objective, Shackleton turned around, knowing that they would never return if they kept going.

As part of its leadership initiatives, the Shackleton Foundation will be leading a special expedition to the pole in October 2008, exactly 100 years after the original Nimrod expedition. The Foundation will be sending six of the original team’s descendents to follow the same 900-mile, 80-day route that Shackleton took. More information about the adventure can be found at their official website.

Shackleton returned to the Southern Continent in 1914, as leader of the Endurance Expedition. After losing his ship to the ice, Sir Ernest Shackleton gained immortality by successfully leading his crew of 28 men through two long dark winters without loss of life. He died in 1922, while leading his fourth expedition south.

To make an advanced bid in the auction, visit the Shackleton Foundation website.

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