A customer service assistant at Falmouth clothing company Sea Salt met the Duchess of Cornwall at a reception for military veterans who had been helped back into work.

Sandra Marshall of Redruth was a corporal with the Military Police before being medically discharged with osteoarthritis, EDS, and fibromyalgia. 

She was helped into her new role at Sea Salt by the Poppy Factory, the organisation founded in 1922 to provide employment for wounded soldiers returning from WWI and continues in that work to this day.

The Duchess of Cornwall, patron of the Poppy Factory hosted a celebration at Admiralty House on February 4 to mark the milestone of enabling 500 disabled veterans back into employment.

Mrs Marshall was one of the ex-service men and women who met the Duchess, who also met key Poppy Factory people, including president Sara Jones CBE DL, chairman Mark Perowne, and chief executive, Melanie Waters. 

Ms Waters, said: “The purpose of this event was to show our thanks to all the employers, mentors, staff, and indeed our disabled veterans, for contributing towards the success of our Getting You Back to Work programme.

"The Poppy Factory uses its unique expertise to help disabled veterans into work with many large and small commercial organisations throughout the UK. We believe that a health condition should not prevent an employer from considering one of our veterans as worthy for a meaningful career.

"The attendance of our patron, The Duchess of Cornwall, helps us to highlight our important work to provide bespoke support to our disabled veterans once they’ve left the forces.”