It was a great honour to have been invited to become Honorary Colonel of 2nd (Northern Ireland) Battalion, Army Cadet Force. As a former Army Cadet, Grenadier Guardsman and Medic in the Royal Army Medical Corps, being asked to take on this role is very special to me.

I have done a lot or work with the ACF over the past few years; including joining the Herts and Bucks Wing at an exercise at Longmoor Camp in Hampshire a couple of years ago.

I know from my own experience the benefits of belonging to the ACF. It is a great organisation and really helps develop young peoples’ potential, sense of adventure and self-confidence.

My first job in my new role was to present campaign medals to some of our brave soldiers on their return from Afghanistan, in particular a group of medics who had performed some incredible life-saving operations in the field.

Sticking with Afghanistan, I have again launched my Treats for our Troops campaign. I, together with the Gazette, have been running this campaign for about 5 years now and we have always had an incredible response.

Our troops are due to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014 and the work will be handed over to local Afghan forces. So this should be our last opportunity to send Christmas parcels to our troops.

Christmas can be a very lonely time when you are serving overseas and a long way from family or loved ones and not all of our servicemen and women have a lot of support back home. Every year, I liaise directly with the Commanding Officers as I want to ensure that our parcels are distributed to those who might not have much home support.

If you would like to make up a shoe box parcel to send to our troops in time for Christmas, more details can be found on my website www.penning4hemel.com or you can call my office on 01442 251126.

There are a large number of women serving in Afghanistan now, so if you make up a parcel that might be more suitable for a female, please put an “F” on the outside.

If you are unable to make up a full shoebox, but would still like to help, individual items can be donated and the Hemel Hempstead Lions have, once again, kindly agreed to make them up into parcels.

Parcels can be dropped off at a number of drop off points including my office at The Bury in Queensway.

Closing date is Friday 22nd November – to make sure they arrive in time for Christmas.

I really appreciate your support with this and I know that our efforts are appreciated from the very positive feedback I receive.

This article was first published in the Hemel Hempstead Gazette.