Poppy day poster bid

The young son of a war widow who has battled the Government for the right to receive her husband's full pension helped his mother launch the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal today.

Tina Thompson, from Stourbridge, has taken an active role in the campaign to highlight the plight of families and servicemen fighting legal red tape.

She and her two-year-old son Aidan were joined at today's London launch by servicemen injured in combat or outside of duty and fellow families who have lost loved ones and have received support from the legion.

Aidan is on a poster showing him swinging between the hands of his mother and where his father – in an image entirely made up of poppies – would be.

Mrs Thompson's husband, Mick, had served in the army for 17 years and completed tours of duty in Bosnia, Northern Ireland and Iraq. He was killed in a crash while travelling to work at a military base in Cyprus when his motorbike collided with another vehicle.

After returning home, Mrs Thompson, aged 36, tried to claim her husband's full pension but was told she was only entitled to part of it as he was not on duty at the time he died. The legion supported her through a series of tribunals which eventually saw her original claim supported, however the Services Personnel and Veterans Agency is still refusing to pay up with officials now taking the matter to a higher court.

Mrs Thompson said: "The legion has done everything it can to support me and I wanted to pay something back."