A Maldon breakfast club for serving and retired members of the Armed Forces is holding its first Remembrance Day parade in the town this year, and is urging young veterans in the district to join its growing troop.

Stewart Bayford, 51, set up the Maldon Armed Forces and Veterans Club as a support group for locals in 2019, and it has already grown to over 90 members.

"I moved here about seven years ago, and I never really saw any veterans marching on Remembrance Day," he said.

"That's what got the ball rolling for me."

Thanks to Stewart's efforts, the club will now be marching as a troop to represent veterans on Remembrance Sunday in November on Maldon High Street.

Stewart wants young veterans to join the parade and become long-term members of the group, which meets every month, so that they can access the support and companionship it offers amid a recent rise in suicides amongst male members of the British Armed Forces.

He said: "The whole point of the parade and the club is reaching someone who's at home wishing he was dead because he hasn't got anyone else around him, and thinks he's the only one on the planet that's served in a warzone.

"We know that in the Maldon district we've got a lot of young lads who served in Afghanistan.

"And in England, people think that you're only a veteran if you look like you're 100 years old with a big white beard.

"So the young ones disappear into the background, which is really unhealthy for them.

"It's about showing them that down the road there's a hundred of us who have been through the same thing - we want to reach people who think they're alone, because they're not."

Up to 21 serving members of the UK military took their life in 2020 - the highest number since 2005, when 22 died by suicide.

The Government announced last week that it will begin to officially count veteran suicides, after years of campaigning by veteran groups and bereaved families.

"The amount of suicides that are happening at the moment among veterans is off the books," Stewart said.

"I read about it happening everyday."

At his club, Stewart said, veterans can access "all forms of different help".

The group meets monthly at different restaurants in Maldon to support all businesses, and arranges social events such as pub trips, bowling, barbecues, museum visits and Christmas meals while providing a safe space for members to access welfare support.

Serving and retired military personnel of all services are welcome at the club, and anyone interested can simply turn up on the specified day or morning.

Those living outside the Maldon district are just as welcome, too.

The club's parade will be taking place on Remembrance Sunday, which falls this year on 14 November, on Maldon High Street.

"We want loads of us marching down the High Street," Stewart said.

"It's been a long time coming."

Maldon Coffee Company will also be offering drinks for just £1 to veterans on the day.

To become a member of the Maldon Armed Forces and Veterans Breakfast Club and to find out more about its Remembrance Day parade and monthly meetings, you can join its Facebook group using the link here.

You can also access its website via the link here.