AN army veteran from Dunfermline is helping to raise funds and awareness for project aiming to immortalise the more than 400 soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

Nigel Hancock BEM, 66, has designed a website to highlight portraits created by fellow vet Kev Wills, who has painted Sir Tom Moore and HRH Prince Phillip and is on a mission to pay tribute to hundreds of servicemen and women who gave their lives.

There are 457 images to be completed, at a total estimated cost of £18,371.40, with each being framed and sent to the subjects' families.

Nigel, who served with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers for 25 years, had come across the campaign on social media and offered his web design skills to create a website to make it easier for more people to view the portraits and read the stories behind each.

He told the Press: "I have always leaned towards helping charities.

"Being a vet I keep in touch on Facebook pages and saw the work Kev was doing, I thought it was pretty awesome.

"He paints and sends a copy to each family but there was nowhere for these to be seen otherwise.

"I said I was happy to make a website where they can be a permanent memory, when he finishes a painting he sends it across and I upload it to the website.

"Some of the 'thank you' messages from families have been quite upsetting.

"As a vet you do have that connection, it's harrowing reading the backstories of the deaths."

He is now working on a 360 degree virtual gallery to display the portraits in a more interactive way.

Nigel, who started web design as a hobby, added: "You are limited on the website but with the 360 degrees people are more likely to click on info buttons telling them the back story and how they died.

"When I first started I looked on the government website on the fatality notices, it takes time but I have read the vast majority.

"Kev did Sir Tom Moore and has been commissioned by regiments, he's a hell of an artist.

"There's patches where I get three or four in a short length of time, then sometimes less, he does it all in his spare time.

"I'm like the engine room, he does all the work."

Nigel has also designed a website for Abbeyview Care Home and has urged any worthy cause to contact him to find out if he can help with an online site.

You can donate to the cause at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/the-fallen-of-afghanistan-15 and find out more about Kev and his work on his website www.kevwills.co.uk.