I wear one for my dad, who served 4 years without a single day off in North Africa in WW2. I treasure his MBE and the citation written by his temporary C.O while under fire. My dad lived with survivors' guilt and could never listen to the Last Post without breaking down in tears. Poor man had (undiagnosed) PTSD and had a breakdown 14 years after he was demobbed. He never spoke about the war other than to express devotion to Monty, hated war films and hated any glorification of war. He'd have been appalled by some of the politically motivated militarism around today.
He served as an engineer and in military intelligence, the latter being a "contradiction in terms".
I wish I'd got to know him better, but I was 15 when he died.
It pisses me off that there are commercial sellers of "great design poppies" etc on eBay, Amazon and that none or very little of their profits goes to charity. For me, doesn't have to go to the British Legion, but any charity would be appropriate, not pocketing the money.
I've ordered a pin badge poppy this year as the paper ones fall off. Pity you can't seem to buy them in the street. Around here there are only the paper ones.