{"id":2239,"date":"2013-06-10T16:04:52","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T16:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/p=?2239"},"modified":"2013-06-10T16:04:52","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T16:04:52","slug":"family-of-afghanistan-victim-raise-51000-for-help-for-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/family-of-afghanistan-victim-raise-51000-for-help-for-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of Afghanistan victim raise \u00a351,000 for Help for Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"
A family in Essex has managed to raise £51,000 for Help for Heroes following the death of 36-year-old colour sergeant Kevin Fortuna.<\/p>\n
His father-in-law Mike Jackson and the rest of the family initially set a target of £10,000 for their fundraising efforts in his memory, but have now collected more than five times that amount.<\/p>\n
They have raised money in a variety of ways, most notably through sponsorship and collection.<\/p>\n
Speaking about the total, Mr Jackson told the BBC: "We could never have dreamed of that. If we can do it once, we can do it twice. We are now aiming at £100,000."<\/p>\n
Colour sergeant Fortuna was leading a patrol with the 1st Battalion The Rifles when he was killed in a blast in Helmand Province in May 2011.<\/p>\n
His father-in-law described it as an "unlucky day", when he stood on an improvised explosive device by chance and suffered the tragic consequences.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An Essex family have raised money for charity in memory of their son.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-support-soldiers"],"yoast_head":"\n