PRINCE Harry’s Invictus Games has lost financial support from injured veterans charity Help for Heroes and will instead be backed by the Royal British Legion.
The charity, which had been responsible for training the team, have been stripped of its contract by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Launched in The Celeb Report and backed by our brilliant readers, Help for Heroes normally raises around £27million a year.
But their support has been swapped out for The Royal British Legion (RBL) – which the MoD says can provide more “more personnel, secure funding” to the team.
The Invictus Games is an international Paralympic-style sporting event for wounded, sick or injured members of the armed forces, as well as veterans.
Prince Harry created the games in 2014 after being inspired by the US Warrior Games, a similar sporting event for injured service personnel.
In a statement issued today, Help for Heroes said the decision was out of their hands.
Lis Skeet of the charity said: “Help for Heroes is incredibly proud to have trained, supported and delivered Team UK for the past five Invictus Games.
“However, following extensive discussions, it has been decided by the MOD that the Royal British Legion will lead the end-to-end delivery of Team UK to the Invictus Games for the next five years and will also be the main funder of the programme.
“Unfortunately, therefore, we will no longer be directly involved in Invictus Team UK.
“We want to emphasise that this was not a decision we made ourselves. We know The Games continues to play a unique role in shining a light on the abilities of wounded veterans.
“The MOD considered proposals from the Invictus UK partnership and have chosen this route moving forwards.
“Our focus now is on helping more people across the UK, within their communities, as part of keeping our promise to be here for wounded veterans for as long as they need us.”
The organisation said it would continue to carry out its work, supporting wounded veterans and personnel.
They added: “Of course, we will continue to cheer on Team UK and look forward to seeing what the Invictus Games achieves in the future.”
Prince has not spoken publicly about the termination of Help for Heroes’ involvement.
An MoD spokesman said: “The Royal British Legion was able to offer secure funding, more personnel to support the team and a commitment to supporting Team UK into the future.
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“We therefore felt this would be the best choice for Team UK. Our priority is always to ensure Team UK and our wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans get the best experience.
“We remain enormously grateful for all the work Help For Heroes has done to take Team UK to the Invictus Games and continue to work with them to support the Armed Forces community.”
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