After the chilly early morning Anzac parade in Gore, in the warm respite of the RSA, Mr Cuckow said the Gore faction had supported him through two battles with mouth cancer.
He said the association twice supported him financially while he went through treatment and was unable to work.
The help from the RSA left him overwhelmed, he said, as he was used to doing things on his own.
"In a situation like that, they’ve supported me," he said.
"It’s like a family."
The Invercargill RSA also paid for the new pair of glasses he was wearing using proceeds from its poppy fund, he said.
When he first returned from serving in East Timor in 2002, he felt he had come back to "nothing".
After being a territorial soldier, with a weapon in his hand patrolling for seven months, coming back to his regular job felt "different", he said.
It took him 20 years and the help of the "strong" Gore RSA to make him feel like a returned serviceman.
The southern man’s son Jack Cuckow was there to support his father and said he had been to many of these parades since he was small, "on and off".
