Poppy made of thank you notes marks Remembrance Day

A poppy made from hundreds of thank you notes to military heroes has been published to mark Remembrance Day.

The stunning mosaic was released today and a physical version will be placed in the Memorial Garden at the REME Museum. The museum lies at the entrance to MOD Lyneham near Royal Wootton Bassett, the base where fallen soldiers who served in Afghanistan were repatriated to.

It will also be exhibited in Coventry in the build-up to its year as UK City of Culture 2021. It will be exhibited 80 years to the month since 500 German bombers destroyed much of the city in an overnight air raid.

The BBC’s network of 39 Local Radio stations asked people to send in photos of themselves holding a note naming someone they wanted to thank.

One person to get involved was Stephen Cleator, a Royal Engineer who served in the Balkans, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan

“They always say that when times are at their worst we are at our best. When I was injured I couldn’t go to the toilet myself, my friends had to help me. The proudest moment of my whole military career was that my friends carried me on a stretcher – they were compassionate, they were laughing and joking and they genuinely cared for me.

“When I was in hospital my friend carried me to the shower block because I couldn’t use my legs – I’ll never forget that. You might not see a guy for 20 years but the second you bump into each other outside a shopping centre and it’s as if you never left each other.” – Stephen Cleator

To find out more about the BBC’s Remember Together campaign, go to www.bbc.co.uk/MakeADifference.