Israel has much to teach Britain from its experience of helping military veterans overcome their physical and mental wounds, Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer has told the JC.

Mercer, an ex-Army captain who completed three tours of duty in Afghanistan, was speaking during a visit to Tel Aviv to attend the Veteran Games, in which more than 60 Britons are spending this week competing against their Israeli counterparts in a range of events.

“I’m determined to make Britain the best country in the world in which to be a veteran,” Mercer said. “This visit is all about sharing best practice.”

Mercer said that the games, which were first held in 2019, made a huge contribution to veterans’ wellbeing.

Shortly before he spoke to the JC, Mercer said, he had spent time with a former soldier who had lost his legs at the same time as one of Mercer’s own tours in Afghanistan: “He lives alone and was feeling isolated, but he told me that the day he won a swimming medal was one of the best of his life.”

The games are organised in conjunction with Beit Halochem, an Israeli charity that currently supports 51,000 wounded veterans and victims of terrorist attacks. It runs a network of state-of-the-art rehabilitation centres that provide physical treatments, sports and social programmes and opportunities for education.

According to Veteran Games co-founder Spencer Gelding, who served in the Royal Marines, the involvement of veterans’ families is central to Beit Halochem’s success, and dozens of family members have travelled to Israel with the British Games participants. “Medals are a great bonus, but our goal is to provide an environment for veterans to challenge themselves in a way that will provide lasting benefits, while building friendships with other heroes and their families with whom they have so much in common,” Gelding said. 

“For some of those taking part, these Games are the first time they have travelled abroad since being injured, or the first time they socialised with fellow veterans for many years, or simply the first time they’ve experienced a family holiday since their lives changed forever.”

Mercer said sport was “the most powerful vehicle for recovery”. He too praised the involvement of veterans’ families in both the Games and programmes run by Beit Halochem: families, he said, “made an enduring sacrifice” and it was vital to support them.

Another strength of the Games, he added, was that they were non-selective, so that any wounded veteran could take part.

Mercer said that because Israel does not have a veterans’ minister, he would be meeting senior Israeli civil servants. He also intended to visit Israeli start-ups pioneering relevant new technologies. “We will follow the science and data,” he said.

As a yardstick for how much veterans’ treatment has changed, he pointed out that “100 years ago, people were being shot for having post-traumatic stress disorder”.

Like other recent UK government visitors, Mercer stressed the significance of Britain’s partnership with Israel: “It’s incredibly strong. We have strong security ties, strong economic ties, and Britain is already one of Israel’s biggest European trading partners.”

With a new free trade deal likely to be concluded this year, these links were set to get stronger still, Mercer said.

Many of the British Games participants endured horrific injuries as a result of their military service, and their life stories illustrate the value of sports in promoting rehabilitation.

They include Craig Lundberg, 37, totally blinded in both eyes after being hit by rocket-propelled grenades in Iraq in 2007. Within 16 months he completed the London Marathon. He has also played blind football for England and cycled on a tandem from Land’s End to John O’Groats to raise money for Vision Aid Overseas and Blind Veterans UK.  

Lundberg told the JC that he felt “very lucky” to have achieved so much since he was wounded, and that “speaking to others, meeting new people” at the Games together with his family had been “an incredible experience”.

Another veteran competing in both rifle shooting and swimming events is Phil Eaglesham, 41, who has been forced to use wheelchair after contracting Q fever while serving as a Royal Marines commando in Afghanistan in 2010.  A father of three, he travelled to Israel with his wife and three children, and told the JC that he felt the Israeli veterans he met were “true comrades and brothers-in-arms”.

 He said that having grown up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, he felt a special affinity with Israelis: “We both know what it’s like to go through life at risk from terrorist attacks and we have a lot in common. The tragedies caused by war don’t change from country to country. We all have to deal with the same injuries, and here we’ve been getting tips from each other – the camaraderie and atmosphere have been fantastic.”

 Eaglesham recently regained some mobility after a change in his medication, and has been developing a revolutionary four wheel drive wheelchair that allows him to pilot it at normal head height and to negotiate obstacles such as kerbs. “I’ve been showing the prototype to everyone here and there’s been a lot of interest,” he said. “Meanwhile I’ve been enormously impressed by Israel’s rehabilitation facilities.  Sime of what they do here is amazing.”