Imagine waking up every morning wondering if your government has intentionally exposed you to lethal radiation, and is lying to you about it.

That living nightmare is the daily reality for thousands of nuclear testing veterans and their families - 70 years.

Now, they have one last chance to sue the Government for the toxic legacy of trauma and illness they have been left to endure.

Between 1952 and 1967, more than 20,000 British servicemen took part in hundreds of Cold War weapons tests in Australia and the South Pacific. They would have been jailed for refusing. 

Their efforts delivered the nuclear deterrent which has kept this country and her allies safe ever since. Today, only 2,000 or so - most in their 80s, and with chronic health problems - still survive.

Studies show they have higher rates of death and cancer than other veterans, while their wives report 3x the normal rate of miscarriages and their children display 10x the usual amount of birth defects. 

As well as the surviving veterans, there are an estimated 155,000 living descendants, many of which suffer from their own trauma because of the anxiety caused by every pregnancy, every illness, and their ever-present fear of early death.

The UK government is the only nuclear power on Earth to continue to deny its nuclear weapons testing ever harmed anyone.

What are we doing?

We have uncovered documentary evidence that atomic scientists took blood tests from the servicemen as part of a monitoring programme. The results were classified as 'scientific data', which has been used as an excuse to keep them from survivors and families even today. Modern-day defence ministers have refused to publish the advice they've received about these vital records.

Based on this new evidence, the veterans and their families are launching a landmark legal action to end seven decades of trauma caused by the Government's secrecy and cover-ups. They need your help to finally get access to their full medical records, and the answers they have always sought.

In the first phase, we are raising money to seek disclosure of the records so that we can get to the truth of the matter and end the appalling uncertainty these veterans and their families have been forced to live with for so many years.

Why should you care?

This is the longest-running scandal in British history. In it, you can find the roots of official attitude to other injustices, like Orgreave, Hillsborough, Grenfell. If the state can treat its own heroes with such disdain, then it will do it to any one of us. And if the state can be forced to admit what went wrong, its other ills can be fixed, too.

These men have kept us all safe for decades. Now we must stand up for them.

What can you do?

Our first step is to make a pre-action application for an order of the court for disclosure from the Government of the blood records we now know exist. The Government will likely resist this, which will mean the application will have to go to a full hearing to be decided on by a judge. Given the history and complexity of the matter this will, in itself, be akin to a mini-trial. 

We are looking to raise £50,000 to £100,000 to pay for this initial phase, in the expectation a professional litigation funder will come on board once the records are disclosed to cover the cost of what will probably be a long fight. The veterans do not have this money, which is why we need your help.

Before you go...

More than a decade ago, the Ministry of Defence defeated the last legal attempt to prove radiation caused these men's injuries, by arguing they had brought the action too late. Now we know that the Government concealed evidence, we can compel them to produce it. With this comes a new chance for justice, and a final opportunity to tell these men they can stand at ease, and in honour.

Please dig as deep as you can to help these families in their last and biggest battle for the truth. Thank you for hearing them.

About the claimant

I'm Susie Boniface, a freelance journalist who has been covering the nuclear veterans campaign since 2002. This page has been set up to fundraise on their behalf.