TRANSCRIPT
In the trenches of the Western Front during World War I, a soldier pledged to his dying mate he would look after his wife and children.
This became known as "the promise" which 100 years on, volunteers for the group that became known as Legacy still work to keep.
Veteran Kate Munari is one of them.
She's had the distinction of being the only female Australian Navy pilot to fly in Afghanistan - and now the honour of giving back through Legacy.
"That was the culmination and the pinnacle of my career, those operational deployments to Afghanistan... We often think of the actual veteran who went, not as much of those they left behind. So that's why I'm quite passionate about this."
The group provides the loved ones of injured or fallen veterans with financial, social and developmental assistance.
But Legacy Canberra president Chris Appleton says the group relies on public fundraising to keep going.
"Legacy is a charity. It's funded by the public. So all around Australia this week you are going to find volunteers like me, and friends of Legacy, selling badges and bears in shopping centres, and on streets corners, outside pubs and clubs. So if you see us, come up and say hello, buy a badge. Because that little badge will make a big difference."
Merle Hare joined Legacy when her ex-serviceman husband died 26 years ago - but also served herself.
"In August of 1942, they decided they would recruit women into the Australian Navy and it was there that they pulled me in."
Merle is one of the 54 volunteers carrying a Legacy torch throughout the country to mark the charity's one hundredth year.
The torch relay started in the battlefield of France in April, traveling through Belgium and London before returning home to Australia.
The Legacy torch has already come through Canberra, and will now make its way down to Victoria, where it will finally run home down the main streets of Melbourne in October.
Chris Appleton says the torch symbolises everything that Legacy stands for.
"The symbol of Legacy is the flame, the eternal flame. So long as that flame is alight, we will remember them."
