Help for Heroes founder Bryn Parry says he hopes the first injured servicemen and women will start to use a personnel recovery centre in Tidworth by the end of the summer.

Cash raised by the Gazette’s appeal will go towards converting Tedworth House into a place where injured troops can continue their recovery.

It is expected to cost between £17 and £20 million to convert and extend the former officers’ mess and another £1.5 million to run each year.

Mr Parry, who founded the charity with his wife Emma, said: “I am very, very excited about this project. We are nearly there with getting everything signed, sealed and delivered.”

The conversion of the grand old house, which is owned by the MOD, will be done in stages and planning permission applied for in phases.

In the first phase, 28 bedrooms will be built on old tennis courts at the side of the house and some of the downstairs rooms converted into areas for study and dining.

Eventually the whole building will be converted to include accommodation for 52 servicemen and women.

Mr Parry said: “We expect the whole project to take about 18 months to complete and eventually it will include a one-stop welfare shop.

“It will mean that people who may have been helped by us in the past but are suffering new problems, such as losing their job, their wife deciding she doesn’t like them much any more or their leg is hurting, can come back and know they will be welcome and that they can get all the help they need under one roof.”

He said the bedrooms would be used by injured troops who do not have a home to immediately return to or whose house can not cope with their needs.

Mr Parry said: “While they are with us their needs will be assessed and helped to re-train for a different role. It may be they can no longer be on the frontline but they can learn computer skills.”

Once planning permission is finalised an open day is to be held at Tedworth to show what it will have to offer.

“This will be a place that we need the people of Wiltshire to take to their hearts,” he said.

“The Gazette’s appeal has done a tremendous job and we need people to continue to support us.”