Thompsons helps create service memorial

Independent builders’ merchant Thompson Building Centres has helped a local charity provide a memorial wall to honour the area’s fallen servicemen and women.

Thompson Building Centres have been fully behind the Sunderland-based Brothers In Arms appeal, set up 18 months ago by the parents of young soldiers who had lost their lives while serving with the Armed Forces.

And now the appeal has managed to reach its £100,000 target -with a pledge from Thompsons’ managing director Anne Ganley to underwrite any additional costs.

The existing Wearside memorial only names those who died up to World War II and families who have lost their loved ones since the 1940s have not had anywhere to go to pay their respects.

“It has been a great pleasure and an honour for both myself and Thompsons as a company to support this very worthy cause,” Ganley said.

“These brave parents have lost their children who were serving their country and although nothing will ever take away the pain of what they have been through, this wall will last as a permanent tribute to their bravery.

“The Armed Forces should be very proud of the parents – Janice, Carla, Tom, Brenda, Linda and Brian – who have turned their grief into something positive and through sheer commitment and dedication have ensured that their dream has become a reality.”

Thompson Building Centres will also be providing the materials free of charge when the building actually gets underway, with plans for an official opening of the memorial in 2011.

The wall will not only honour the people who have died during conflict but also those who have lost their lives in accidents while serving in the Armed Forces.