The green counters are given to you (or you can take one) when you leave the till.
They're local, mostly to Oxfordshire as Thame is in that county, but sometimes you get Bucks charities, too.
The labels at the top of the box give information and these three are for (on the left) Brain Research UK, in the centre is The Veterans' Charity and on the right it's Youth Cancer Trust. I know you make your choice depending on what is most important to you after you've read the text but I was surprised to see that The Veterans' Charity had the lowest collection rate.
I think this country has a poor record on the whole for looking after its discharged servicemen and women - no wonder so many charities have appeared which are fundraising for ex-service personnel.
I have an item from a Radio Times, undated unfortunately, but kept within the last year or so. It's by Colonel Tim Collins who fought in Iraq in 2003 and was once CO of 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment. He stated that 1,100 ex-servicemen are homeless within 2 miles of the Cenotaph; 28,000 now suffer from alcohol or mental health problems. And that was many months ago. One charity, Combat Stress, supporting sufferers said it takes on average 14 years for the PTSD problem to emerge, so soon it'll be the turn of those who were in the Balkans.
I have no connection with any of the forces but it strikes me that not much has changed since Kipling wrote:
'For it's Tommy this and Tommy that, an'
'Chuck him out, the brute!'
But it's' Saviour of his country' when the guns begin to shoot.
