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Parcels appeal by dead soldier’s father
The policeman father of a soldier killed in Afghanistan is appealing for his colleagues to send food to the front line.
PC Paul Gamble, 53, based at Gatwick, is asking officers to donate to Parcels For Paras, a national campaign to send rations to serving soldiers.
Private Daniel Gamble, 22, from Uckfield in Sussex, was killed alongside two colleagues on June 8, just two and a half weeks before his 23rd birthday.
He served with the elite 2nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment.
PC Gamble, who used to send parcels to his son, has introduced collection boxes at police stations to encourage his colleagues to donate.
He said: "On the front line all they have is their rations. We had been sending food packs to Daniel. A bag of sweets is just brilliant. The Parcels For Paras collection has snowballed with companies in Uckfield, where we live, and at the airport wanting to do something.
"Others will gain from Daniel's death, which is what he would have wanted.
"I have had overwhelming support from Sussex Police. Everyone has pulled out the stops to make Daniel's death a positive thing."
The collection campaign in the stations was also launched by PC Gamble's wife Georgina, 49, head of the School of Beauty at Lewisham College in London, and colleague Sergeant Al Cleland.
He said: "Colleagues have been asking if they contribute to any fund. The Parcels For Paras is something which Paul, his wife Georgina and I came up with to try to help the paras out there in Afghanistan.
"People are donating items of non-perishable food, drinks, sun lotion, moisturiser, wet wipes, socks and so on, so we can make up parcels, under 2kg, which are sent free to those paras still out there."
Daniel died when a suicide bomber set off a device in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. He was killed alongside Private Nathan Cuthbertson, 19, from Sunderland, and Private Charles Murray, 19, from Dumfries.
Daniel's neighbours have set up the Private Daniel Gamble Memorial Fund to raise money for military charities, including an appeal for a new wing at a military hospital in Afghanistan. Donations can be made via NatWest bank in High Street, Uckfield.
9:20am Thursday 3rd July 2008
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