FORMER soldiers are preparing to spend Christmas camped outside Britain’s “leading charity for veteran’s mental health” in protest at the organisation’s cuts to their treatment.

The charity Combat Stress has been under fire since October, when army veteran Gus Hales launched a hunger strike outside their Audley Court treatment centre in Newport, Shropshire.

Mr Hales, the 62-year-old son of a Nuneaton coalminer, suffers from PTSD. He began protesting after Combat Stress discharged him on his doorstep.