On November 1st, Chris was surprised his Army barracks in Hampshire by Strictly Come Dancing winner, Ore Oduba, who presented him with a prestigious Pride of Britain award.

Pride of Britain received thousands of nominations from viewers of ITV local news programmes, which were whittled down by judges in each area to just 17 finalists – one from each ITV region.

From the thousands of nominations, Major Chris Brannigan was finally selected as the national winner thanks to his Barefoot March Across Britain fundraiser for his daughter, eight-year-old Hasti who has a rare disorder – Cornelia de Lange Syndrome (CdLS) – which has no cure or treatment. Chris’ plan to raise £50,000 for the charity he set up to find a gene therapy for this condition was quickly abandoned as fundraising rocketed past this initial target. The final sum raised was almost £600,000.

The final cherry on the cake of what was a very special moment for the Brannigan family, was the special message for Chris and Hasti from international pop-star Taylor Swift. “Hasti and Major Chris, this is Taylor” she said in a heartfelt video message. 

“I just wanted to say to Major Chris that what you did fills me with so much admiration. You raised so much money and awareness for charity.

“Hasti, you’re amazing! You’re so courageous and so inspirational. I really hope that I get to meet you someday. You are the Pride of Britain!”