Local company helps Falklands veteran meet Simon Weston OBE

Simon Weston OBE with Ken Campbell at Rochdale Town Hall

Falklands war veteran Ken Campbell met Simon Weston OBE with the help of local company, Lions Telecom.

Ken, an ex royal engineer who was born in Middleton, was in the Falklands at the same time as Simon Weston. When the boat Simon was on got bombed, Ken and the others on the beach felt the blast and saw the fall out from the incident.

Ken, who now lives in Northamptonshire, was later diagnosed with PTSD and has gone on to start his own radio station – Veterans Radio Net.

The station is a radio station set up for veterans and run by veterans which provides the latest information regarding issues that affect the lives in and around veterans of H.M Forces – good, bad or indifferent.

After tuning in to the station, Lions Telecom Services approached Ken to help with wi-fi for the station.

Lee Barnfield from Lions Telecom Services said: “We do a lot of work with charity and we provide free broadband, phone lines and phone numbers for them whilst they get started. I approached Ken after I heard his programme and offered our help.”

In return, the station promotes Lions Telecom Services with a logo on their website.

Lee then decided to arrange a meeting between Simon and Ken once he heard that Simon would be speaking at Rochdale Town Hall.

“I thought it would be a good idea to try and get them to meet. They haven’t seen each other since the Falklands so I emailed the council and we arranged for the two of them to meet. Ken knew he was coming to hear Simon speak but didn’t know that they were meting so it was a real surprise for him,” said Lee.

The two then met before Simon’s speech at a special event on Tuesday (24 June).

Lee said: “The meeting went well. They had a photo and were talking for about 15 minutes. After that Ken decided to leave because he was quite emotional and didn’t want to sit and watch the video of the Falklands and things, which is understandable.”

Ken is now back to running his radio station. He gets up at 5.00am every day and prepares his station to go live at 7.00am. Ken is supported by a number of other presenters and is currently looking for another presenter.

Lee added: “I think he wants to get someone involved who is a bit younger and who has come from the war in Iraq or Afghanistan and get them
involved with things.”

Ken’s radio station can be listed to at http://www.veteransradionet.com/