Help for Heroes founders Bryn and Emma Parry paid a special visit to RAF Lyneham on Friday.

The couple, who set up the charity which is backed by the Gazette, toured the base and met some of the troops who bring wounded soldiers back from the front line.

Mrs Parry said: “It has been an absolutely wonderful day.

“When we started Help for Heroes, we didn’t set out expecting anything really. We just wanted to encourage people to help the men and women fighting. But the way people have embraced it, and really seem very keen to help, is just fantastic.”

Mr and Mrs Parry’s son, Tom, is an officer with 2nd Battalion the Rifles, and spent a tour in Sangin in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, last year.

The couple come from military backgrounds, and Mr Parry was in the Royal Green Jackets before working as a cartoonist.

Station Commander John Gladston said: “It is an absolute honour and a priviledge to welcome you both to the base here.

“However, it is with a tinge of sadness that I welcome you because I sense this will be the last time you are able to visit us here.

“We are beginning to slow down the base, and it will eventually close in 2012. Having said that, I can absolutely reassure you that the cause you fight for will continue to burn brightly in our hearts.

“Every person on this base is highly motivated to achieve the same aims as you. The impact Help for Heroes has had is incalculable.”

The couple started the charity with a bike ride to raise £10,000 for injured service personnel, but over three years, they have raised more than £50 million, and were appointed OBEs in this year’s birthday honours.

Bernice Brady, who volunteers for the charity, and Flight Lieutenant Belinda Mollan organised the visit.

Mrs Brady, who will be relocating to Selly Oak Hospital for four months from January, said: “We knew we had to have the Parrys to visit us here before the base closes.

“I will be devastated when it’s gone. I don’t know what I’ll do. But it has been a great pleasure to have Emma and Bryn here today.”

Mr Parry said: “Our dream and motivation now is to increase the number of centres in the UK that can specialise in prosthetics.

“The government has made a committment to the quality of the prosthetics an injured member of the armed forces will have for the rest of his or her life.

“However, it will cost around £500,000 per person to commit to this, and we need to make sure that these troops are getting the best medical care they can.

“When we started this, some people were disagreeing with the war, but we wanted to cut through that.

“The thing that matters are the people. One of our biggest donations was from a man who walked in, told us he didn’t agree with the war, but he was giving us £98,000 on behalf of his kids who didn’t have to fight in it.”

Mrs Parry added: “These are our young men, and they want to keep going.

“They want to walk first, and then they want to run. The next year, they’ll want to run faster, or ski, or learn how to fly. We need to make sure they have these opportunities.”