A SOLDIER'S mother will join a protest in London next week against cuts to the army battalion for which her son gave his life for.

Hazel Hunt, from Abergavenny, will join a protest at the Cenotaph in London on July 24.

This has been organised in response to the Ministry of Defence cuts recently announced by the government.

This includes the decision to merge the 2nd Battalion the Royal Welsh with the 1st Battalion - which is potentially putting 600 jobs at risk.

Mrs Hunt's 21-year-old son Private Richard Hunt was serving with 2nd Battalion the Royal Welsh when he was killed in August 2009 after being on tour in Afghanistan.

Mrs Hunt said she was devastated and angered by the decision and wrote to defence secretary Philip Hammond, the Prime Minister, the Queen and Monmouth MP David Davies.

She said she feels the soldiers have been betrayed and called it in an "insult" to her son's memory.

Mrs Hunt will join the peaceful protest at the Cenotaph but others will also be held at war memorials across the country.

More than 2,000 people joined the Facebook group in less than 24 hours and plans are already under way for protests in Glasgow, Manchester and Leeds.

The peaceful protest has been organised by Dee Edwards MBE who is patron of the charity Soldier off the Streets.

She said the objective is to get a u-turn on the cuts and said they have to make a stand and make the Ministry of Defence take notice.

Mrs Hunt said: "I don't think the government has realised they've hit a nerve this time. I'm very angry and very frustrated by it all.

"This is just a way of people saying this is a step too far."

She said the protest is going to be done with due respect for those who have lost their lives.