GB News Veterans' Voices: Saturday, November 7, 2026

Share this As we mark remembrance across the country this week, GB News has been finding out the stories of veterans from across the UK. This special series continues today with the story of Jane Wilkes. "My name is Jane Wilkes, and I served in the British Army for 15 years in the Adjutant General's Corps Staff and Personnel Support Branch. I served in Macedonia, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. I deployed to Afghanistan in the autumn of 2011, in Task Force Helmand, based in Lashkar Gah. My responsibility was the initiation of casualty notification fatality management. "On the hard days when you lose someone, everybody calls together to try and draw strength from the courage, the commitment, the teamwork, the sacrifice of those who've lost. And it is a community like no other in that respect. When you deploy on operations, when you sign up, you know that you could be sent to zones of conflict and war. "I don't think anyone I know, and certainly not me, wants anyone to try and understand that necessarily, because it's not them in your shoes. But it is hard when the reality hits. That is when you have to draw on your strength and those around you and your professionalism and your training. "During my deployment to Afghanistan, I found a lump in my left breast, and I was moved back to the UK and it was triple negative breast cancer. I went from a zone of conflict onto a chemotherapy award for the majority of 2012. The Royal British Legion contacted me and suggested I go on a course, the battle back course for wounded, injured, sick personnel. "It triggered quite a lot of stuff that came to the surface, which was important to come to the surface, because then it was able to be dealt with rather than being pushed down. In 2026, I am a local artist here in Shrewsbury and Shropshire, and I'm super proud to have been asked to design the poppy glass for this year's razor glass campaign as part of the Poppy appeal. "Remembrance is so important to me. I have lost really good friends. I've lost members of my team and the wider team on the deployments that I have been on. I remember them throughout the year, but particularly at this time of year, and remembrance is a time that we can come together to honour, remember, respect and thank those amongst us who have served their country and paid the ultimate sacrifice. And this is why we wear the poppy, so that we do not forget and we will remember them." Follow related topics: You are about to be charged £0.00* *Your gift has been applied