{"id":1328,"date":"2012-01-13T16:28:09","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T16:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/p=?1328"},"modified":"2012-01-13T16:28:09","modified_gmt":"2012-01-13T16:28:09","slug":"couple-raises-25k-for-abf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/couple-raises-25k-for-abf\/","title":{"rendered":"Couple raises \u00a325k for ABF"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two fundraisers have been recognised after they collected over &pound;25,000 for the Army Benevolent Fund (ABF).<\/p>\n<p>Michael and Kim Sweeney started collecting money for the organisation after their son was killed in action in Afghanistan, the New Post Leader reports.<\/p>\n<p>To commemorate this great achievement, the Elswick All Arms branch of the Royal Artillery Association handed out a cheque worth &pound;50 to the couple.<\/p>\n<p>As well as this, Ronald Millican and Percy Norris were also rewarded for their service to the UK &ndash; which totals over 60 years &ndash; with cheques.<\/p>\n<p>For the past 66 years, the ABF has been providing lifetime support and financial assistance to ex-servicemen and women.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By 2015, the company hopes to increase its annual fundraising drive to &pound;14 million &ndash; there has been a 30 per cent rise over the past two years &ndash; so that it can help as many people as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Posted by Samantha Thompson<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ADNFCR-2867-ID-801264340-ADNFCR\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.directnews.co.uk\/feedtrack\/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2867&amp;itemid=801264340\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael and Kim Sweeney have collected some &pound;25,000 for the Army Benevolent Fund. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Couple raises \u00a325k for ABF - Forces Penpals GB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/couple-raises-25k-for-abf\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Couple raises \u00a325k for ABF - Forces Penpals GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Michael and Kim Sweeney have collected some 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