Local RAF veteran receives award for service to SSAFA

26 August 2021

Local RAF veteran, Vic Rice, 79, from Fulbeck near Grantham, has been a volunteer for SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity for 13 years, after a 35-year career with the RAF.

Originally joining up as an apprentice, he retired as a Squadron Leader Engineer, seeing service in Kenya, Malaysia and Belize, as well as various bases in UK.

Since then, he has made an enormous contribution to the work of SSAFA in Lincolnshire to support service personnel and their families.

Having started with SSAFA Lincolnshire as a volunteer caseworker in 2007, Vic took over the reins as Branch Secretary in 2011.

He leads on the day-to-day administration of the Branch, taking calls from clients, handling referrals for support and allocating cases to colleagues.

He also acts as first point of contact for new volunteers, helping them with the application process and keeping in close touch with them.

Vic has been more than willing to run the Branch office from home during the pandemic, ensuring that the volunteers and SSAFA’s clients have been fully supported during a difficult period.

He has also planned, supervised and orchestrated two Branch office moves and a third move is now underway.

Vic said: “This is a great honour and I’m delighted to receive the award. After my long RAF service, I wanted to give something back. I greatly enjoy dealing with veterans and their families - particularly the banter and sense of humour which is their watchword.”

If you’d like to know more about volunteering for SSAFA Lincolnshire, you can find out more here, email Lincolnshire.Branch@ssafa.org.uk or call 01476 593 833.