Army veteran's new mission designing poppy glasses

After completing a history degree and working in America and Ghana, Jane Wilkes wanted to do something with meaning and purpose.

Full of what she described as "adventurous wanderlust", Wilkes, from Shrewsbury, joined the Army's Adjutant General's Corps, completing operational tours in Macedonia, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Serving for 15 years in total, she was flown home during her final deployment in 2011 after being diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. It was then that she came into contact with armed forces charity, the Royal British Legion.

Now 50 and recovered, she is giving back to the RBL by designing commemorative glassware that will be sold to raise money for the charity.

"I was based in Germany at the time, so it was a very challenging time," she said, looking back to her diagnosis.

She had triple negative-breast cancer, which is a less common form of the disease, and eventually moved back to the UK to "crack on with eight months of pretty brutal treatment, chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy".

"At the end of that, I was recommended to the RBL to go on a course called Battle Back, which isn't far from here, in Lilleshall."

The Battle Back Centre supports wounded and injured service personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Wilkes said the course she did there in 2013 brought to the surface everything she had been suppressing.

"It sort of ripped a scab off that had gently healed over a surface, and the scab needed to come off, and I needed to address those issues rather than keeping them very deep," she told the BBC.

"It triggered me to get some help, and it was a really, really good course."

The following year, she also took part in the RBL's art outreach programme.

"So, yes, the RBL has helped me a couple of times, and I'm hugely grateful for it," she said.

The now Shropshire-based artist, Wilkes was asked by the RBL to design the commemorative glassware that will be sold at more than 1,100 Marstons' pubs across the country, raising money for the RBL.

It is part of their "Rase a Glass" campaign, running until 11 November.

"It feels pretty special," she said.

"It's just so wonderful to be able to do something really positive and to give back to a charity that helped me when I needed it a few years ago."

She said seeing the glasses for the first time was emotional.

"To see them in my hand... it was really, really special - they're unique, they're very pretty, and the words on them, the image, the colours... it just looks wonderful, and I was so honoured and proud."

"It's a unique role, being in the armed forces," she said.

"It's a community that is so special and so different in so many ways, but you work alongside such inspirational people.

"You're at the forefront of what's going on in the world and I guess you just try and do your best for you know and the mission and your country."

She added: "Remembrance is doubly special because it's personal to everybody, but it's so important that we come together and remember collectively those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country."

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