WWII VETERAN ‘HITCH-HIKES’ TO NORMANDY IN NEW FILM TO PROMOTE NATIONAL LOTTERY FUNDING

Tuesday, January 14, 2014: A video featuring 88 year old World War II veteran Robert Coupe has been released today as part of the National Lottery’s new ‘Just Imagine’ campaign. The video is released on Day 14 of ‘Just Imagine’, a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of the massive impact that £31 billion in project funding has had across the UK since the first National Lottery draw 20 years ago this year.

Mr. Coupe, from Blackpool, is filmed leaving his home before heading to a nearby road in order to ‘hitch-hike’ to Normandy. The film aims to highlight National Lottery funding that has helped our nation’s heroes travel to overseas remembrance services and memorial events. The film can be viewed online: http://bit.ly/1diEYnD

Mr. Coupe, who turns 89 on January 26, was called up for Army Service at the age of 18. He received basic training before being posted to the 5th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment, part of 197 Brigade of the 59th Infantry Division. Mr. Coupe’s active service saw him take part in Operation Charnwood, an Anglo-Canadian offensive to capture to German-occupied French city of Caen, a vital part of the Allied objective during the early stages of the Normandy invasion.

He applied for National Lottery funding for a commemorative trip under the Big Lottery Fund’s Heroes Return programme and has since successfully applied for a second trip as part of the extended Heroes Return 2. Since 2009, over £25 million has been awarded to more than 52,000 World War II veterans, widows, spouses and carers across the UK for journeys in the UK and to countries including France, Germany, the Middle East, the Far East.

Speaking in the film, Mr. Coupe explains: “I go with the 59th Division members every year and we go round the graves of the comrades. We lost a lot of men.

“It’s an expensive thing, it’s a lot of money. I can’t go enough and if I can go with funding then I’m quite happy to go.”

Vicki Kennedy, Director of The National Lottery Promotions Unit, said: “Our war veterans sacrificed so much to protect our freedoms. It is entirely appropriate that they should receive National Lottery funding to pay their respects to those who didn’t return. National Lottery players should be proud that they are supporting heroes like Robert Coupe.”

Released on Twitter (@lottogoodcauses #JustImagine) and Facebook today, the film is the fourteenth in a series of 31 items to feature through January – one for each day and each £1 billion of funding.

The Just Imagine campaign will run through the first four months of the year, with further phases including an original animation movie telling the story of funding, and other “positively disruptive” digital techniques, according to a National Lottery spokesperson.

To enable people to learn more about National Lottery funded projects in their area, the National Lottery has launched a ‘Good Cause Finder’. To see projects in your area, or to find out more about Just Imagine January, visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk

-ENDS-