POPPY campaigners were joined by a collection stalwart and an MP at the launch in a Weymouth Supermarket.

ASDA received a certificate of appreciation for its work on the Poppy Appeal as it launched the 2014 campaign.

Poppy Appeal campaigners Naomi Turner and Christine Simms were joined at ASDA in Weymouth by Community Life Champion Sandy West, collection stalwart Poppy Butcher and South Dorset MP Richard Drax.

The group sold poppies in the foyer of the Newstead Road store and Mr Drax presented Mrs West with a certificate of appreciation from the Poppy Appeal for the work that the store does.

Naomi Turner, chairman of the Weymouth branch of the Royal British Legion, said the Poppy Appeal was as strong and as important as ever, adding: “It’s so important; even now we are getting servicemen injured. The main focus now is on rehabilitation.”

The appeal had created four million special jewelled poppy pins for this year and there were no more to send out.

Mrs Butcher was aged 16 and working in the stores office of Portland Naval Base at the time of the D-Day landings.

Her grandfather was injured and gassed in the First World War and her father was killed in the Second World War. She was born on November 11 and called Poppy.

She said the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War had brought the Poppy Appeal into people’s minds.

She said: “I think it’s very memorable this year. I think it’s brought it to people’s minds. Every year I collect for them.”

Mrs West has created a board in the store of pictures from the Poppy memorial in London and it features war poetry, poppies and tributes to the Commonwealth and US forces who fought alongside the UK in the war.

She said the Poppy Appeal is not about the wars but about remembering the ones who went including all the allies and commonwealth soldiers.

Mr Drax said: “It’s a day to remember not only those who fell in the Second World War but the many conflicts the British Armed Forces have been in.”

He added: “We owe them a huge debt.”