You wouldn't have seen this amazing story because the media were not invited, but did you know that a few days ago President and Jill Biden asked to see an Ex-Royal Signals soldier before they left for home? Kemsley Whittlesea (Kemz) joined the Corps as a Lineman in 2003 and served across the world, but was medically discharged in 2018. Just as he left, he was selected to take part in a fantastic awareness and fund-raising event run by the charity Walking With the Wounded known as the Walk of America. Kemz was one of the three British veterans from a team of six who walked over 1000 miles in various locations across the US from California to New York.
Jill Biden was the US patron of the walk, and both she and Joe spoke to the team on many occasions to encourage them as well as encouraging donors to support the veteran charities that the walk was in aid of. This week, on their first visit out of the US as President and First Lady, they sent out a message, as Kemz told us. "Last week I had a call from Walking With the Wounded to see if I was available as Joe and Jill had asked if we’d meet up with them before they left the UK…clearly not an opportunity to turn down, as it’s not every day the President of the United States and the First Lady personally ask you to go and say hi!"
Kemz has been busy in the three years since the Walk of America. He's now a very in-demand tattoo artist, and has supported a huge number of other charities. Last year, working with the charity RE:ACT he supported the pandemic response by providing door-to-door testing and even worked in a mortuary identifying dead bodies. We think Kemz thoroughly deserved the Presidential Gold Coin that he was presented with (oh, and the red white and blue Presidential M&Ms, too!) Well done Kemz, we're proud of you
.jpeg "President Biden visit Ex-Royal Signals soldier")
