SSAFA Highlands and Islands

13/10/2026

MoD Veterans Services (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-from-veterans-services) will be running an open day/surgery in Stornoway, Western Isles on Wednesday 28th October.

The Inverness-shire & Western Isles branch of SSAFA hope to have a presence at this event, along with the Forces Pension Society, Combat Stress, Veterans Scotland and SACRO.

Anyone from the military and veterans community in the area is welcome to attend.

For details please see the attached flyer.

14/09/2026

The Inverness-shire & Western Isles branch of SSAFA has had a busy summer 2026 of fundraising and community engagement.

Members of the branch team braved weather of the usual dramatic Scottish variety in many locations, as well as forest fires.

The branch attended these events:

June:
- Queen's Own Highlanders (Seaforth and Camerons) annual Regimental Gathering, Inverness
July:
- Inverness Highland Games
August:
- Celebration of the Centuries re-enactment event, Fort George
- Nairn Highland Games
- Kinloss Running Festival, Kinloss Barracks

The team at the events was composed of various combinations of these branch volunteers who put in a lot of effort and time to support SSAFA:

- Beverley Cartwright
- Anna Masson
- Antony McCord
- Jimmy Greig
- Susan Gray
- Liz Henderson
- Al Kendall
- Florence Jah

The main activities the volunteers carried out were:

- Supporting the events and promoting SSAFA with a stall
- Talking to many people in the veterans and military community in Scotland about SSAFA
- Fundraising with raffles (prizes included bottles of donated wh**ky) and collecting donations
- £840 was raised in donated funds for SSAFA at the Nairn and Fort George events
- At the Kinloss Running Festival (which the branch helped to start up in 2024 and has participated in every year since), the SSAFA team supported the event and handed out medals - two charities always split the funds raised at the event and this year the chosen charities were the Army Benevolent Fund (https://armybenevolentfund.org/) and SSAFA, with SSAFA receiving £2866 (https://www.facebook.com/kinloss.running.festival)

07/09/2026

The Inverness-shire & Western Isles branch of SSAFA is looking for a Branch Treasurer to join our friendly team.

If you want to find out about what we do for the veterans community, check our website:

https://www.ssafa.org.uk/inverness-shire-western-isles

To find out more and apply, use this link:

https://volunteer.ssafa.org.uk/opportunities/116635-branch-treasurer-inverness-shire-western-isles-2026-05-29

01/09/2026

Does your GP know you're a veteran? Say You Served this September.

According to Scotland's 2022 census, there are 172,000 veterans living in Scotland - but only 13,000 are currently identified as veterans on GP IT systems.

We're calling on veterans in Scotland to help change that. Doing so can help veterans access - and GPs signpost - veteran-specific support where appropriate.

Next time you're at your GP surgery, let reception know you're a veteran if you feel comfortable doing so.

25/08/2026

The Kinloss Running Festival is happening this weekend at Kinloss Barracks.

The Inverness-shire & Western Isles branch of SSAFA will be in attendance at the festival.

Please come along and enjoy the event, and see us at our stall and help with fundraising and chat about the help we provide to the veterans community.

https://www.facebook.com/kinloss.running.festival

16/08/2026

The Inverness-shire & Western Isles branch of SSAFA has had a busy couple of weekends.

Last saturday we braved the wind and rain at the Celebration of the Centuries event at Fort George.

This weekend we were at Nairn Highland Games. Thankfully the weather was a lot better and the SSAFA stall was busy.

Over the two events we met many people and spread the word about SSAFA. Over £800 was collected in fundraising activities over the two weekends.

12/08/2026

The Nairn Highland Games are taking place very soon, on Saturday 15th August.

The Inverness-shire & Western Isles branch of SSAFA will be in attendance at the games.

Please come along and enjoy the event, and see us at our stall and help with fundraising and chat about the help we provide to the veterans community.

We were at the Celebration of the Centuries event at Fort George last weekend and we're hoping for better weather this weekend!

https://www.nairnhighlandgames.com/

31/07/2026

The Celebration of the Centuries re-enactment event is happening soon on the weekend of 8/9th of August at Fort George near Inverness.

The Inverness-Shire & Western Isles branch of SSAFA will have a stand at the event. Please come along and chat to us and find out more about what we do!

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/whats-on/all/overview/?eventId=d26c5237-8fd3-43dc-a4d1-ae550078539e

17/07/2026

Beverley Cartwright, a Community Engagement Volunteer with the Inverness-shire & Western Isles branch of SSAFA, participated in the 13 Bridges Challenge on June 27th. She raised nearly £600 for SSAFA and came 55th out of over 1200 walkers who attended the event. You can read her story about the day here: https://bit.ly/4pre8CQ

02/06/2026

At the recent SSAFA Scotland Volunteer Conference in Glasgow, Anna Masson the Casework Coordinator and Secretary for the Inverness-shire and Western Isles branch of SSAFA received the SSAFA Scottish Regional Award. Anna was recognised for her casework and the support and development of other volunteers. Anna's story is covered in the Inverness Courier, which you can see at:

An Inverness woman who is a long-standing member of the Armed Forces community has been recognised for 20 years of voluntary service.