"I'm still struggling finding out who I am": veteran support plan being unveiled in Parliament
It's an initiative by armed forces charity Help for Heroes
The armed forces charity Help for Heroes is unveiling a new veteran support plan in Parliament today (23rd June).
The charity said: "The UK cannot ask more of its Armed Forces, without first doing more for those who need help when they leave service."
Rob Shenton is a British Army veteran from Stoke-on-Trent who served for 25 years - his home county of Staffordshire has more than 38,000 veterans.
He was medically discharged due to depression and PTSD.
Shenton said: "I was very proud to be in the army - I wanted to be a soldier since I was 8 years old.
"During the time I joined, from the early 90s to 2016, there were a lot of operations going on, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
"And so there was lots of activity and really, although it was busy, it was frenetic, I immesnely enjoyed it."
When Shenton was discharged, it felt like his whole life was being taken away from him.
The veteran said: "There's still an element, 10 years down the line, of trying to find my identity. The army has a recruitment campaign: "You belong". Well I belonged there."
Shenton recalls facing discrimination at work, from one colleague asking whether he shouted at people or needed to be shouted at, to another telling him that serving in armed conflict was nothing to be proud of.
Shenton is proud of the work Help for Heroes are doing to help, saying: "They've got a manifesto which is effectively trying to ensure that members of the armed forces community have better access to health care. They have strengthened financial security through compensation and they have, there's delivered more inclusive support and there's more long term accountability through government.
"But society as a whole - it feels like they don't care."