A group that fights for consumer rights recently said it was worried that the Royal Mail strikes could make things very bad for troops stationed abroad this Christmas.

The strike kicked off last week and will run through several days in December, leading all the way to Christmas itself. To help, the Royal Mail has set a deadline for December 3, i.e., this Friday, for parcels to be sent in. However, rights groups don’t seem too sure that all parcels will make it through, with some suggesting that thousands will be left without.

The coming months will be riddled with several strikes, but nothing hits harder than this one. The great irony in all of this is that the British Army is on standby to step in for some of these strikes. When the NHS workers take a step back, it’s our uniformed men and women who will be helping fill the gaps.

“The reality is if the army or other armed forces step in it will very much be at the margins rather than going out and driving ambulances,” Saffron Cordery, the interim chief executive of NHS Providers, told Sky News.

Even as troops back home are getting ready to help things remain stable in the face of massive strikes, there’s no doubt that we need to stop and think of those serving overseas this Christmas.

While the Royal Mail has said that parcels will be going out by this Friday and hopefully will not be impacted by the strikes, the British Forces Post Office has said that services will go down if the strikes cause delays for this Christmas.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Martyn James, a consumer rights expert, has said that the Friday deadline is too optimistic.

“It’s not just a case of the actual strike days themselves, it’s the knock-on impact of all of that post that is still waiting to be delivered, that can’t magically be delivered all in one day. There will be a knock-on effect, and I do think the estimates that have been given are still a little optimistic to say the least,” he said.

Families and friends of those serving are being told to rush their parcels out as soon as they can. For many, this is the only way they can show support to the soldiers they know, and often this is the blip of hope needed to keep moving along for those serving.

Another consumer campaigner, Jane Hawkes, also told the media that the deadline to post was no guarantee that delivery would get through in time because of the cluster of delays expected overall.

Many of our members report that getting a parcel from back home, especially at a time like Christmas, did wonders to not just boost their day but their overall morale.

It is critical that a workaround be found for the situation at hand. Anyone who has a loved one currently serving should keep the December 2 deadline in mind, but act sooner rather than later.

We hope that an exception can be made to the strike, keeping in mind the great sacrifices that those serving in the military are already making. They fight so we don’t have to, the least we can do is ensure their Christmas is not darkened.