Six months ago the Gazette joined forces with Help for Heroes to help create a personnel recovery centre at Tidworth.

This week, as the charity marks its third anniversary, its founder Bryn Parry is about to sign the paper work on Tedworth House on the town’s Army base.

If all goes to plan the historic house owned by the Ministry of Defence will be transformed into a half-way-house for injured soldiers by next summer.

But before that dream can become a reality a massive amount of fundraising needs to be achieved.

Mr Parry said: “We need £20 million to get it up and running but probably £35 to £40 million to secure its funding for the next ten years.”

But massive sums are no longer daunting to Mr Parry and his wife Emma, who formed the charity on October 1, 2007 with the aim of raising £500,000 but instead raised £6 million by June 1, 2008. The total for the first three years stands at £70,800,000.

Mr Parry said: “I want to say a huge thank you to all of your readers who are supporting the appeal.

“Over the past three years we have had donations ranging from 20p to £1 million but the small donations are just as important to us as the huge ones.

“And now with Tedworth House hopefully about to take off there is a huge amount of work to do and we will need the people of Wiltshire to rally behind us.”

He promised that, thanks to the charity’s separate trading arm, every single penny made from fundraising goes straight to the cause.