Legion’s plea for younger poppy sellers

Seventy-six-year-old Michael Muddle has been selling poppies for as long as he can remember: “My mother used to do it and I’ve followed her. When I was younger I lived in a village and she used to walk round the village in the snow selling poppies.”

Last year, his team in Cabot Circus raised tens of thousands of pounds for The Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, but Michael has lung cancer and is worried how long he can continue collecting and who will replace him.

The average age for the Poppy Appeal sellers in Bristol is 72 years old and organisers say they desperately need help from younger volunteers.

Sue Potepa is the British Legion’s community fundraiser in Bristol.

“The Poppy Appeal is vital in raising funds to help our Armed Forces.  It is really hard that we need to rely so heavily on 70 and 80 years olds, who although being an amazing group of people and working so hard to cover Bristol, they do need some physical and moral support from the younger generations”

“It is just their sheer commitment which keeps this going forward. Last year they raised over £500,000, but it can’t continue with the same people at the helm for ever, they need to have young people coming behind.”

Poppy appeal organisers Hugh Harding, Dorothy and Michael Muddle helped raised more than £500k in Bristol last year

Michael’s wife Dorothy, who has also sold poppies since childhood, is urging more, and younger, volunteers to come forward to help them: “We are struggling to get youngsters’ time. They are doing their own thing and it’s a different era but we would like some more help even if it’s just for a couple of hours.”

Sue said the charity needs to make itself relevant to the younger generation: “I wonder if they don’t know what we are doing. They may see it as an older peoples membership club but they need to realise that the people we see now more and more are just a bit older than them.

“We are looking after people coming back from conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and it’s not just the initial help once they leave the forces – The Royal British Legion helps them for their whole life.”

The average age of poppy appeal collectors in Bristol is 72 and the British Legion is urgently calling out for more volunteers

She thinks the charity may have also lost out to newer high profile charity Help for Heroes: “They do an entirely different thing to us. They are more of a rehabilitation service and they do some excellent work. However, we are there for lifetime for members of the armed forces, veterans and their families.”

From the recently opened area office in the city centre, 80 volunteers work alongside six full time members of staff, visiting and supporting clients in and around Bristol.

Michael says he has tried to encourage younger people to get involved so they can carry on providing a full range of services from the Bristol office, but he’s worried that if they don’t it will have a real impact on collections in the future.

“I don’t want to think about that,” he says.

For more information about volunteering in Bristol contact: spotepa@britishlegion.org.uk

Bristol Poppy Day is on October 29. Volunteers will be collecting from 7am to 7pm in Cabot Circus and there will be a marching military band and live entertainment.