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This week, Prince Harry<\/strong> is in the UK celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the first Invictus Games<\/a>, the biennial sporting competition for wounded veterans that he helped found alongside Sir Keith Mills,<\/strong> an entrepreneur who helped to organize the 2012 Olympic Games in London. But during a panel discussion with Mills at London\u2019s Honourable Artillery Company, the prince said when they first started planning for the 2014 Games, he wasn\u2019t positive that it was going to work out.<\/p>\n Harry mentioned that he first got the idea for the Games during a 2012 trip to the United States, where he attended the Department of Defense\u2019s Warrior Games. \u201cSport was the magic that I witnessed,\u201d he said. \u201cHaving just come back from Afghanistan myself, seeing the wounded, injured and sick and seeing the effect this was having on all the families, and just the weight\u2014the load on defense and on the individuals and on the rehabilitation programs. There just wasn’t enough being done.\u201d<\/p>\n Upon his return to England, Harry decided he wanted to expand on the Warrior Games model\u2014it was \u201cstolen from the Americans and made bigger and better,\u201d as he described it. He reached out to Mills, and over a cup of tea, they decided to take the project on. \u201cWe had this idea and not much else, frankly,\u201d Mills said of the early months of work on the Games. \u201cIt wasn’t called the Invictus Games then, we had no money, we had no people. We just had a very good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n Things finally came together when Harry arranged a meeting with someone in the position to help.\u00a0\u201cThe next cup of tea Prince Harry organized was a cup of tea with Boris Johnson<\/strong>, myself, and Prince Harry,\u201d Mills said. Former Prime Minister Johnson, then mayor of London, had control over the facilities used during the Olympics. \u201cHe twisted Boris Johnson\u2019s arm quite hard to allow us to use all the facilities in the Olympic Park at no cost.\u201d<\/p>\n That favor allowed Harry and Mills to go forward, and the first Invictus Games were held from September 10 to 14, 2014. \u201cWe called on a huge number of people who went way beyond what would normally be possible to pull off the first games, none of us really knowing where the first games was going to take us,\u201d Mills continued. \u201cBut it was phenomenally successful and that\u2019s the reason we\u2019re all here today.\u201d<\/p>\n During the panel, Harry mentioned that early on the Invictus Foundation decided that the families of wounded veterans needed to be included in the event, adding that he loved to hear their stories.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had moms, I\u2019ve had dads, I\u2019ve had grandparents,\u201d he said, speaking about the families that have moved him most. \u201cI\u2019ve had kids come up, hug my leg and thank me\u2014thank us at the foundation for bringing Daddy back, for helping Mommy out. It\u2019s a real thing.\u201d<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Harry is set to join a service of thanksgiving<\/a> in honor of the Invictus Games at St Paul\u2019s Cathedral alongside actor Damian Lewis,<\/strong> who will read the poem from which the event got its name. He will not, however, see his father, King Charles III,<\/strong> during his two-day trip to the UK.<\/p>\n “It unfortunately will not be possible due to His Majesty\u2019s full program,\u201d Harry\u2019s spokesperson told the New York Post<\/em><\/a> on Tuesday. \u201cThe duke, of course, is understanding of his father\u2019s diary of commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n