Market Drayton forces link of love cancelled

An army wife who organised a show of support in Shropshire for county troops serving in Afghanistan has been left "extremely disappointed" after she was forced to cancel the event.

Tara Bradshaw was expecting at least 5,000 people to hold hands and form a four-mile human chain through Market Drayton yesterday but only 40 people turned up.

Mrs Bradshaw said she had organised the event, which had been dubbed the "Link of Love" to give their nearest and dearest serving on the front line a massive morale boost.

The 43-year-old said: "Months of hard work went into organising this event and I am extremely disappointed with how it all went.

"I can't even blame the weather because it was quite a nice day yesterday albeit a bit cold. A lot of publicity also went into organising the event and I can't blame it on that either.

"People just didn't turn out and support us like they said they would."

She added that she had only managed to collect around £700 out of the £5,000 she had hoped to raise from the event for three good causes, The Army Benevolent Fund, Midlands Air Ambulance and Help for Heroes.

"All I wanted was for people to link arms and form a chain from the town's Royal British Legion club to the gates of Clive Barracks in Tern Hill to show their support for 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment, which is based at the barracks. But it just didn't happen," she said.

Currently more than 120 soldiers from the regiment, including Mrs Bradshaw's husband Davy, 41, are on tour in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Mrs Bradshaw's sons Ryan, 23, and Gary, 21, are also both British soldiers.