A Suffolk veteran will be sleeping out under the stars to raise money for the charity that helped him when he was homeless.
Ex-Royal Navy man Nicholas Cohen is taking part in the Royal British Legion Industries' Great Tommy Sleep-Out, sleeping in a tent in Sudbury.
"I spent about a year on the streets sleeping in doorways before someone suggested I contact the Royal British Legion Industries. They were fantastic," said Mr Cohen.
"I was in Fleet Air Arm before my father become seriously ill and consequently died. I came out early from the armed forces. After my father died, I struggled and became homeless.
"Someone came out and helped me put together a business plan and find different ways of looking for funding. They pointed me in the right direction and helped me find somewhere to live, some furniture and put me back on my feet.
"They helped turn my life around. That's why there's so many of us doing the sleep-out around the country."
The sleep-out will take place at the Sudbury war memorial from Saturday, March 25 to Sunday, March 26, with the night of Friday, March 24 at the Croft, adjacent to the memorial.
The town's war memorial lists the names of Sudbury men who lost their lives in the two World Wars and the Zeppelin raid of March 1916.
Mr Cohen decided to take part and met a few others on Facebook who would like to join him, one of whom is also a veteran.
He added: "With the armed forces, they take you in when you leave school, they teach you how to fight and how to be a soldier, and you spend however long you serve without much civilian interaction.
"When it is time to leave, we do not know how to survive. We know how to iron a shirt but we do not know how to pay a bill. It takes quite a lot of adjustment and we often have quite a lot of issues - maybe PTSD or physical injuries from war - and they can't survive and end up on the streets.
"We do a lot for our country, for very little reward, and when we find ourselves in that place, we are sometimes too proud to ask for help.
"We don't see someone on the streets and think that they served three terms in Afghanistan."
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