ChiddingfoldNews September 30, 2013

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July 17, 2013

Lost Medals - 2 Found in Chiddingfold?

Hi, Please could you help me , my husband lost a set of 10 Military medals on his way to Littlehampton on Sat 29th June 2013. 6 how been found in your village of Chiddingfold by 2 gentlemen both from the village.
Please could you help make the wonderful resident aware that we still need to find the other 4.  I am not sure if you are aware but my appeal has been widespread due to social networking, we have appeared on ITV Meridian news, Eagle radio, Spirit FM and BBC South Today.
We now think the other 4 may have been picked up by someone who is not sure what they are? Below is my original appeal which has spread across most of the UK

I am writing this email as a desperate plea for help I am married to a wonderful man who has served his country for 24 year in the British Army and is still in the forces now, over this time he has been deployed on several operational tours of duty. He has served in Iraq twice the first at the age of 17. He then went on to do tours in Kosovo, Bosnia, NI and last year in Afghanistan.
He has achieved a collection of 10 medals in total for his services these medals are his pride and joy and something that he wanted to hand down to our Daughter when he retires for her to pass on to her children.
The Army has been his life since the Age of 12 years old when he used to visit his uncle in Aldershot and was well known by the troops there at the time.
Alan is part of The Royal British Legion Riders Association - Surrey branch, on Saturday 29th June they were taking part in Armed Forces Day event at Littlehampton, West Sussex. The group met at Compton and rode together to the event. On route at some point his medals fell out of his rucksack which was tied to the back of his bike, he only realised when he got there and went to put them on. He was devastated but carried on and supported the event.
He came home at around 6.00pm that evening and told me at first I cried and then I began my hunt to find Lost medals .  I placed a posting on Facebook in small selling page local to us and that was it.
We both where sat there responding to messages and liking pages on Facebook until 3.30am. We have had thousands of people re-sharing my message and it has its own ', I did not know what a ' was until Sunday lol. I have had messages from as far as Australia and the support has been amazing but we have hit a wall now.
We have retraced the route every night since it has happened looking for them and putting posters up along the way, speaking to the local people in each area. Every pub, bus stop, shop and Garage has been given a poster for Aldershot to Littlehampton.
Nothing has turned up yet I think that now someone may have picked them up and not realise they true value. Any Soldier knows the hard work and dedication that is need to gain one medal never mind 10, to me each medal represents 6 long months spent away from our daughter growing up.
So this is a heartfelt plea to help me find these medals, we will offer a substantial reward for their safe return.

    Kindest Regards

     Clair Fiddler