Valentine's Delivery Fit For A Prince!

Prince William will be sifting through a huge pile of Valentine's cards tomorrow thanks to children whose parents are in the armed forces.

Hundreds of youngsters have written to William describing their experience of military life and their love for their families.

Campaigner Sarah Bennett Thurston and her three sons - Zachary, four, Haydn, eight, and Cameron, 12 - plan to drive from their home in Bournemouth to Clarence House on Monday to deliver their haul to the prince.

They hope it will raise awareness of charity Garrison Girls, which supports sufferers of military post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Mrs Bennett Thurston, whose husband Paul is an Army sergeant, said: "My children know Prince William is a soldier. They said
that, as he's in charge, he should know about what we're doing, and they got their friends to help.

"We wanted to explain how children see military life.

"People get lots of letters on Valentine's Day so we thought we'd tie it in with that."

They asked schools, including Downlands School in Blandford Camp, Dorset, to help out, and hope to have collected around 1,000 letters and cards for the prince and his fiancee, Kate Middleton.

"Some of them are very emotional," Mrs Bennett Thurston added.

A spokesman for St James's Palace said: "The couple are very touched by the children's kind thoughts."

The charity aims to raise £5 million to start a family therapy centre for PTSD sufferers in Britain.

Two years ago, Mrs Bennett Thurston and a group of Army wives posed naked in a calendar to raise cash for military charities.