A HUSBAND and wife team celebrated raising £250,000 for Help for Heroes in memory of their son-in-law who was killed whilst on active duty in Afghanistan.
Mike and Sue Jackson, from Colchester, have spent 11 years raising money for the military charity in the name of their beloved son-in-law Kevin ‘Kev’ Fortuna.
Colour Serjeant Fortuna, of A Company, 1 Rifles, was killed in May 2011 by a roadside bomb while on patrol.
He had given 19 years of his life to the Army, serving from the age of 16 and touring Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, the Balkans and Northern Ireland.
He received nine medals during his military career and died just three weeks before his 37th birthday.
Mike and Sue initially set a target to raise £10,000 in memory of Kev, but reached a staggering £42,369 by the end of 2012 and have continued to fundraise for the charity ever since.
After reaching the £250,000 mark, the couple were surprised by volunteers and staff from the charity, who presented them with an award to mark their fundraising efforts.
The duo received the shock visit while collecting donations outside a Tesco store in Martlesham, Suffolk.
Mike, 73, said: “It took us totally be surprise, people kept trickling in. Occasionally when we’re in Colchester we see people we know, but when we’re out of area we tend not to.”
Mike, who estimated he has carried out between 200 and 300 bucket collections, added: “We keep saying we’re going to slow down, but I’ve got about ten days already booked for next year.
“You get to the stage now where we know what works and what doesn’t work.
“Supermarkets are really good. You set up so people see us on the way in, they do their shopping and then they stop to donate and have a chat when they leave.”
Mike and Sue had raised £100,000 by 2014, before deciding to push on their current target.
Mike said: “I think I had too much to drink over Xmas and just reset the target without consultation to 250,000.
“There was raised eyebrows, but we just plodded on. I knew we’d get there, I didn’t know when.
“The armed forces have done so much for us, we just do a little bit to say thank you.”
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