Armed Forces charity Help for Heroes is asking Welsh schoolchildren to design a T-shirt to be worn by its veterans’ team as it climbs Pen y Fan later this year.

Last year, a six-strong team of veterans representing Wales won the Charity’s national virtual spring games. They had such a great time working together that they’ve stayed in touch and decided they would like to carry out a further challenge this year.

The team included a ‘ringer’, West Sussex-based, former Royal Marine James Cobby, 30, who is confined to a wheelchair following an accident that resulted in a serious brain injury, but who has been defying doctors’ prognoses ever since. James stepped in to fill the gap left by a last-minute withdrawal and has been regarded as an honorary Welshman ever since.

The group will now climb Pen y Fan on June 15, with James using a specially-designed off-road wheelchair, and children from the SSCE Cymru (Supporting Service Children in Education) are being invited to design the team’s T-shirt.

One of the organisers, Help for Heroes’ Sport, Activity & Fellowship Lead, Nick Vanderpump, said: “We decided to open the competition to children of SSCE, because April is the Month of the Military Child.

“We’d be looking for the winning design to incorporate the Welsh word for ‘inspire’ – Ysbrydoli – and a particular feature, or features, relating to the climb: that it’s a Help for Heroes team of military veterans; they’re climbing Pen y Fan; it’s a Welsh team; and they’re now great friends.

“The winning design will be turned into a T-shirt to be worn by the team during the climb and the artist will also receive a T-shirt featuring their own design. If it proves popular, we may even produce more to be sold in our online store.”

The five-strong team taking on Pen y Fan comprises Cobby, from Shoreham-by Sea; Liam Mountain, from Bridgend; Matt Neve, Swansea; Jason Tamplin, Newport; and Donna Davies, who lives in Hengoed.

Entries to the T-shirt competition, which should be no smaller than A4 in size, should be scanned and emailed to [email protected] by midday on April 22, or the original posted to Op Ysbrydoli Competition, Help for Heroes, 14 Parkers Close, Downton Business Centre, Salisbury, Wilts SP5 3RB, by the same date.