Sheffield mum whose son was killed in Aghanistan reaches £100,000 fundraising milestone for Help for Heroes

A Sheffield mum whose son died in Afghanistan 11 years ago has raised £100,000 for armed forces charity Help for Heroes.
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Nicolette Williams, aged 55, started raising money in 2009 in memory of her son Christopher Bridge who was killed while on active service two years earlier.

Since then, Nicolette has held driveway sales at her mum’s Shiregreen house every week, with all the proceeds going to help the injured ex-servicemen’s charity.

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This week Nicolette held two sales outside her mum’s Bell House Road property - one raising £44 and the other raising £296 - helping her raise the final few hundred pounds she needed to top £100,000.

Christopher Bridge, who died in Afghanistan in 2007.Christopher Bridge, who died in Afghanistan in 2007.
Christopher Bridge, who died in Afghanistan in 2007.

She said: “Help for Heroes started two months after Christopher was killed and I was thinking about what I could do to raise money.

“I knew I couldn’t jump out of a plane so I started these sales every six weeks at first but we had so much stuff coming in I ended up doing them every week.”

Nicolette says the sales have now grown to such an extent that the donations fill two garages, her mum’s living room floor and her dad’s greenhouse.

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In the winter, she stands outside from 7.30am until it gets dark, but in the lighter summer months can sometimes be stationed there for up to 14 hours.

Nicolette Williams outside her mum's on Bell House Road in Shiregreen.Nicolette Williams outside her mum's on Bell House Road in Shiregreen.
Nicolette Williams outside her mum's on Bell House Road in Shiregreen.

“By the time I’m finished my legs are killing me and I’m walking like an old lady,” she says.

“But my son and all the other soldiers put themselves through a lot worse for us so I can put up with a few aches and pains.”

Christopher was just 20-years-old when he was tragically killed by a roadside bomb while patrolling Kandahar airport in August 2007.

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Nicolette says that as well as raising money for the charity, the sales also help her and her family with their grief and provide local people with a place to buy things they couldn’t necessarily afford in the shops.

“I’ll carry on as long as my mum can put up with her house being full of all this stuff,” she says.

“I know all the money goes to a really good cause.”