DOG handlers at RAF Lyneham went ‘walkies’ to raise almost £5,000 for Help For Heroes and DebRA.

The two teams of four dog handlers and their award winning dogs marched 35 miles between RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and their home base in under 10 hours on November 28. Marching through Wootton Bassett many people stopped and showed their support and the team raised over £730 with its bucket collection alone.

Cpl Jimmy Thomas, an RAF Police dog handler, said: “All the team members were amazed and extremely grateful for the outstanding generosity shown by those in Wootton Bassett and at the auction on Saturday. People were literally stopping their cars in the street to hand over donations.”

Several of the team members of the Royal Air Force Police Flight based at RAF Lyneham are due to be detached to Afghanistan for six months in December and they decided to organise a charity event to raise money for the charities.

DebRA is the national charity working on behalf of people in the UK with the genetic skin blistering condition, Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB).

The organisation is something close to the Section’s hearts, after a colleague’s daughter died at a very early age due to the severity of her condition.

Help for Heroes was founded by Wiltshire-based cartoonist Bryn Parry and wife Emma, after Bryn visited military amputees in 2007 and was moved by their plight.

The charity now works towards funding equipment at Headley Court, a specialist military rehabilitation centre in Surrey.

Anyone who would like to contribute to either cause can forward a cheque or postal-order, made payable to Service Funds, to The Dog section, RAF Lyneham, Chippenham, Wilts, SN15 4PZ.