AN EX-Lancashire soldier has started a petition backing the Queen's Lancashire Regiment with the help of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph after people in the street turned him away mistaking him for a salesman.

Brave Derrick Jackson, who 'died' twice in half an hour ten years ago after a heart attack said despite his failing health, he wants to fight for what is right.

Derrick, 67, is using a copy of the Telegraph's front page campaign story on his clipboard to convince people to stop and talk to him.

Mr Jackson, of Haslingden Road, Blackburn, says he wants to back our campaign, after having to give up his role as welfare officer for the QLR Association.

Forcing the QLR to join with other regemints would mean the loss of an exclusively Lancashire fighting force for the first time since 1689.

Mr Jackson said at their last meeting the ex-soldiers had expressed anger at the possible loss of Lancashire's last remaining regiment after a prestigious military history stretching back more than 300 years.

He said: "I decided then that it was time to act. I will get as many signatures as I can to save the county's name.

"The QLR has so many war honours and it would not be the same if they were not given to our name.

"I will go on and on until just before the decision is made and want to thank the Telegraph for starting this campaign."

Mr Jackson, a retired caretaker who served in the East Lancashire Regiment for three years after joining aged 18, said: "Now I can go into the town centre and people will listen rather than tell me they don't want to buy Sky!

"This means a lot to people but they might not know who to tell. So they can tell me. I want hundreds of names to send the message."

At a Commons meeting last week defence chiefs made clear to MPs that there is little chance of a rethink on the proposed army mergers which would lead to the abolition of the QLR.

But they indicated the traditions, cap badge and special uniforms of the QLR could be preserved in a larger North West regiment.

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and his head of the military General Sir Mike Walker appeared before the House of Commons Defence Committee, the all-party group of MPs which monitors their work.

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph has so far received more than 1,900 coupons from members of the public backing our campaign.