Help for Heroes offers a range of fundraising challenges and events including bike rides in the UK and Europe, Skydives, marathons, walks, and treks to Nepal and Machu Pichu.
The Big Battlefield Bike Ride The Big Battlefield Bike Ride is the charity's largest fundraising event. The first edition of the challenge was held in May 2008 when 300 cyclists biked from
HMS Victory at
Portsmouth to Northern France, tracing some of the region's most significant
First World War and
Second World War battle sites, and returned to the Cenotaph in London. There have been 11 further bike rides, cycling a total of 3,000 miles and raising around £10 million for the charity.
Supporters' events Red Arrows On 5 September 2008, H4H held a Heroes Ball to raise funds. A charity auction included a
Royal Air Force (RAF) donated prize to fly with the
Red Arrows, the RAF's
aerobatics team. The winning bid was £1.5 million which gave the winner, Julie Heselden, the chance for her and eight family members to fly in the team's
Hawk jets. The RAF said of the bid, "We know it is a special prize – a once in a lifetime opportunity – but we are all astounded that someone could be so generous. The RAF is genuinely delighted to have helped in raising such a fantastic amount of money for such a worthwhile charity."
City Salute The charity was a joint beneficiary of a pageant held on 8 May 2008 in London, hosted by patron of the charity
Jeremy Clarkson, and attended by Princes
William and
Harry, who were both members of the
British Armed Forces.
Sporting challenges On 20 September 2008,
Twickenham Stadium hosted a
rugby union challenge match, featuring rugby players from around the world which raised £1.1 million, and was televised live. The match featured a Help for Heroes XV and an International Select XV. Former
England captains
Phil de Glanville and
Lawrence Dallaglio acted as team manager and captain respectively for the Help for Heroes XV, with Welsh rugby players
Ieuan Evans and
Scott Gibbs filling the same roles for the International Select XV. The teams included players from the
Guinness Premiership,
National Division One, the
Celtic League, overseas players, and players from the
Armed Forces. The Help for Heroes XV won the match 29–10 in front of a crowd of 52,254, which included
The Prince of Wales and
The Duchess of Cornwall. Performing at the event were the
Band of the Royal Hospital School,
Blake,
Escala, and the
Royal Marines Commandos abseil team. A second rugby match, 'The Heroes Rugby Challenge' was played on 3 December 2011 at
Twickenham Stadium. The match featured Lawrence Dallaglio,
Jason Leonard, and Ieuan Evans managing the Northern Hemisphere XV against a Southern Hemisphere team, coached by
Wayne Smith and
Nick Mallett and overseen by
Michael Lynagh and
Sean Fitzpatrick. On 12 November 2009, a
football match was held at the
Madejski Stadium in
Reading, Berkshire, between an England XI team and a Rest of the World XI team, playing for the Heroes Cup. The teams comprised ex-professional footballers, other sportspersons and celebrities, and footballing members of the Armed Forces. The match was broadcast live on
ITV4 and
British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS), and was commentated on by
Peter Drury and
Joe Royle. The Rest of the World beat England 4–1.
The X Factor charity single In October 2010, it was announced that the finalists of the
seventh series of
The X Factor would be recording a version of
David Bowie's 1977 song
Heroes. The song was released in aid of H4H and the Royal British Legion. All sixteen finalists of Series 7 performed the song on 20 November 2010's results show. In the first week of its release, it went straight to number 1, and sold 313,244 copies, more than the rest of the top ten at the time combined. British Chancellor of the Exchequer
Alistair Darling announced he would effectively waive
VAT on the single, by donating the value of the VAT paid on the single to the charity. He said "I very much support the Help for Heroes campaign and I support too the efforts being made by the
X Factor contestants, and in recognition of that I am proposing effectively to waive VAT on this sale of these singles."
Help for Heroes Concert 2010 This was held on 12 September 2010 at
Twickenham Stadium in London, and featured, among others,
Robbie Williams,
Gary Barlow,
Peter Kay,
Tom Jones, and
Pixie Lott. The concert was shown live on
BBC One, and was presented by
Cat Deeley.
Convoy for Heroes At Easter 2011, the first Convoy for Heroes event took place at
Gaydon in Warwickshire, to raise money for Help for Heroes. Organised by
Land Rover enthusiasts, Convoy for Heroes took the form of a world-record breaking convoy of 348 Land Rovers, including
SAS 'Pink Panther' Land Rovers, and several SAS troops themselves. A second Convoy for Heroes event was held over Easter 2012, this time at the larger
Prestwold Hall site in
Leicestershire.
4x4 European Rally The Help for Heroes 4x4 European Rally is an annual non-speed battlefield touring assembly that takes place in June. The event has raised over £1 million for the charity. Starting in England, it covers 2,000 miles and seven countries in twelve days, visiting
World War I and
II battlefields and museums. It is open to 45 teams of road-legal off-road-capable vehicles, with at least two drivers per team. ==Trustees==