Cyprus Bound

27th September 2007

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Jim Davidson OBE, Katherine Jenkins, Heather Small of M People and comedian Roger Kitter delivered three fantastic shows on The British Forces Foundation's first ever visit to Cyprus.

The quality line-up wowed an audience of more than 2,500 British troops and their families over two days at two different venues on the island.

First up was an open-air concert at Dhekelia Garrison. With the stage set with BFF and BAE Systems banners – marking the start of their special Relationship Charity Award – twice as many people as expected turned up to enjoy the show. Many of the 1,500 plus crowd were from the Garrison while others were bussed in from surrounding areas.

Jim Davidson, Founder of the Charity, opened the event and also introduced his fellow performers. Each of the acts proved enormously popular and the evening reached a climax with everyone up dancing to Heather Small's iconic hits – including Jim and Katherine who joined with the backing singers!

On day two Jim and Katherine travelled to a decompression camp to meet and chat with Royal Artillery troops who had just returned from duties in Afghanistan. Meanwhile Heather visited the children at RAF Akrotiri Primary School where she was made to feel very welcome by the 100 plus pupils singing her smash hit Proud – a song they've adopted as their school anthem.

There were two shows scheduled back-to-back for the Astra Cinema at RAF Akrotiri that evening. It was standing-room only in the 440 seater venue and it was the hottest ticket in town in more than one sense of the word.

"It was an excellent quality show," said BFF chief executive Mark Cann. "The mix meant something for everybody - and everybody seemed to enjoy everything. The shows in in Cyprus were as good as any we have done before."

Those sentiments were echoed by those lucky enough to be in the audience, like Paddy and Celia Thompson. "We had such a fantastic night here at RAF Akrotiri with Jim, Katherine and Heather.

"We had no idea BFF was different from CSE and after looking at your website and hearing Jim talk, realise what a fantastic thing you all do for us. We haven't had such a good old belly laugh for ages, Katherine's voice was beautiful and we had a good boogey to Heather with her fabulous distinctive voice.

"Thank you for all the hard work behind the scenes and to Jim for setting the whole thing up and making us laugh. You are very valued and appreciated."

David and Jane McCrum were also in the audience. "We all felt so privileged to see such famous and truly talented people perform. Episkopi was alive with talk of just how amazing you all are and how much we all appreciated the concert."

Commander British Forces Cyprus, Air Vice-Marshal Richard Lacey CBE, paid tribute to the work of The British Forces Foundation. "Many of my servicemen rotate to Afghanistan and Iraq on a regular basis, leaving their families a long way from home and without the support that they would normally receive from family and friends back in the UK.

"If their welfare and morale remains intact, their husbands or wives on operations can concentrate on the job in hand. Thus your visit not only gave us the perfect opportunity to show our gratitude for all their continued loyalty and commitment, but made a huge, albeit indirect, contribution to front-line operations. This linkage does not go unnoticed."

AVM Lacey added: "The value of work that the British Forces Foundation does for British Armed Forces personnel cannot be overstated and we are really grateful."