Help for Heroes has been removed from the Prince Harry’s Invictus Games collaboration

The charity for injured army veterans, Help for Heroes, will no longer be involved in Prince Harry’s Invictus Games after being removed by the Ministry of Defence

The charity Help for Heroes has reportedly been banned from its involvement in Prince Harry’s Invictus Games, with the Royal British Legion taking their place.

Despite his role in recruiting and training the British team since Harry founded the first games in 2014, the Ministry of Defense has canceled the contract.

The Duke of Sussex created the Invictus Games to help soldiers, sailors and airmen injured in Afghanistan and Iraq rebuild their lives through adaptive sports.

Instead, the Ministry of Defense decided to award the contract in full to the Royal British Legion for the next five years, much to the alleged “disappointment” of Help for Heroes staff.

Help for Heroes has helped 25,000 wounded and injured service members and veterans since it was founded by Bryn and Emma Parry in 2007 after visiting soldiers at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham.

That To express has reported how the Ministry of Defense removed Help for Heroes after the charity said it wanted to evaluate whether the Invictus Games was still offering value for money to donors after the next competition in Düsseldorf in 2023.

The charity also wanted to reduce its potential liability for funding shortfalls and share costs more evenly with the other two UK team partners – the Ministry of Defense and the Royal British Legion.

But it insisted it wanted to continue preparing the British team and continued to support Invictus.

Lis Skeet, Services Director at Help for Heroes, told Express: “Help for Heroes is incredibly proud to have coached, supported and delivered Team UK for the last five Invictus games.

“However, after extensive discussions, the Ministry of Defense has decided that the Royal British Legion will lead the end-to-end delivery of Team UK to the Invictus Games for the next five years and will also be the main funder of the programme.

“As a result, we will unfortunately no longer be directly involved with Invictus Team UK. We would like to emphasize that we did not make this decision ourselves.”

Harry, 37, patron of the Invictus Games Foundation, has not commented and is said not to have been involved in the decision.

And the Invictus Games Foundation has promised to continue collaborating with Help for Heroes on other projects.

A spokesman for the foundation reportedly said: “This was a decision by the UK Ministry of Defense following proposals for the future team structure and not a matter for the Invictus Games Foundation.

“Across our participating nations, we work with many military organizations and charities to support international wounded, injured and ill service personnel and veterans, including through our post-Games programs, and will continue to do so with Help for Heroes.”

MoD officials insisted that signing the Royal British Legion to prepare Team UK for the next five years would put Britain’s preparations on a firmer financial footing.

A Ministry of Defense spokeswoman said: “The Royal British Legion has been able to offer secure funding, more staff to support the team and a commitment to support Team UK in the future.

“So we felt this would be the best choice for Team UK. Our priority is always to ensure Team UK and our wounded, injured and ill service staff and veterans have the best experience.”

She added: “We remain enormously grateful for all the work that Help For Heroes has done in bringing Team UK to the Invictus Games and continue to work with them to support the Armed Forces community.”