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​I was proud to have my second poem, Brief Encounter, about the famous Carnforth Station tea ladies of World War II voted into the 2009 collection, Poems of the Poppies, published by SilverWood Books to raise funds for the charity, FLOWforALL. I had the honour, as one of the contributors, of being photographed at the book launch seated at the table with their patron, Dame Vera Lynn. It was after hearing her speak, amongst everything she did for the troops' morale, of being with them in what was then Burma - confirmed by the man sitting beside me who said: 'She was there - my father was one of them.'