Andrew Bracey, a former Royal Artillery reservist paralysed in 2005, joins Blesma at the Cenotaph on Sunday 8 November. He won eight Invictus Games medals.

Southend Army veteran Andrew Bracey will march at the Cenotaph in London this Remembrance Sunday, 8 November, with other injured veterans from Blesma, The Limbless Veterans.

Andrew is a former Royal Artillery reservist. He will take part in the National Service of Remembrance alongside fellow Blesma Members, the charity said in a release sent to Southend Today. Blesma is a national charity that supports limbless and injured veterans.

“A cross for the guys I have known and lost”

For Andrew, Remembrance is about the friends and fellow servicemen he has lost. Asked before about how he marks it, he said:

“I always do it my own way; I have a cross that I place down for the guys who I have known and lost, people who I’ve served with.”

He first marched with Blesma at the Cenotaph in 2015, and called it a “once-in-a-lifetime chance”. This year he goes back.

Andrew Bracey in a black beret, blazer and poppy on a red mobility scooter among Blesma veterans, with an inset photo of a soldier in Army dress uniform
Andrew Bracey with Blesma before a Cenotaph parade in London. Photo: supplied by Blesma

From a 2005 crash to the Invictus Games

In 2005 Andrew suffered a serious spinal injury in a motorcycle accident. It left him paralysed, and he has used a wheelchair since. Blesma says he struggled at first to adjust, then found wheelchair basketball, and after that took up competitive wheelchair racing.

Racing took him to the Invictus Games, where he represented the UK twice:

  • Orlando, 2016: two silver medals and two bronze
  • Toronto, 2017: four silver medals

That is eight medals over the two Games. He kept racing after Toronto, and people in Essex raised money to help him go after his sporting goals, the charity says.

Remembrance in Southend

Andrew will be in London on Sunday morning. Southend’s own service is at the Cenotaph in Cliff Gardens, with the parade reaching Clifftown Parade at 10.45am and the two-minute silence at 11am; times and road closures are in our Southend Remembrance Sunday guide.

Blesma is based at 115 New London Road, Chelmsford, and is a registered charity in England and Wales (1084189) and Scotland (SC010315). More about its work with injured veterans is on blesma.org.