NAVY NEWS, MAY 2010

19

issafan brief Andrew’s mile milestone

SSAFA, the Soldiers’ Sailors Airmen and Families Association, celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2010 with a series of events and fund-raising initiatives throughout the year.

annual Service Volunteer Awards at the John Logie Baird School in Helensburgh, where children held a party to mark the launch, with the help of the Clyde Naval Base Commander, Cdre Chris Hockley, and SSAFA Forces Help chairman Sir Robin Ross. The awards will be presented

by Prince Michael of Kent this summer.

charity this year are: n The Maritime Warfare School at HMS Collingwood, which presented cheques totalling nearly £4,000 to Claire Hoather, Director of Fundraising for SSAFA.

Royal Navy Motorcycle Club and by a team of cyclists on a sponsored bike ride from Poole to Manchester and back to HMS Collingwood n Dave Jones, a SSAFA

The money was raised by the Among those supporting the The charity launched its

JUST as this edition of Navy News was hitting the streets, injured Marine Andrew Grant was gearing up for one of the biggest challenges of his life – to walk a mile in the Virgin London Marathon. Andrew, 21, was seriously

smashed and his femoral artery severed.

wounded in Afghanistan in February 2009 when he and a friend were caught in an IED explosion triggered by a trip wire.

Andrew sustained shrapnel wounds to all four limbs, the bones in his right leg were

He was in an induced coma for two weeks at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, where he spent three months before moving to the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court. Andrew plans to join injured army officer Phil Packer for the 24th mile of the route, in aid of SSAFA, the charity which helped him and his family during his time in Headley Court. Andrew said: “For me taking

miles and smiles Hundreds of

Caseworker on the Isle of Wight, who raised £210 from a ‘Big Brew’ and cake day held in HMS Warrior, in Portsmouth, with the help of former Wrens ‘Rusty’ Jones and Cheri Parsons. SSAFA is offering summer activity breaks for young people with additional needs – principally disabled children, their brothers and sister, and young carers. The week-long breaks, in

Northumberland, Exmoor, or Fairthorne Manor, near Southampton, include riding, climbing, swimming and kayaking. SSAFA also needs volunteers to help run the holidays. For more details email

holidayprojectcoordinator@ ssafa.org.uk

A row go

YEOVILTON’S 815 Naval Air Squadron B Section clambered aboard the base’s static rowing machines for a 12-hour rowathon for Macmillan Cancer Support. From 8am to 8pm, the 26

rowers – including the PT staff, the First Lieutenant, the Base Warrant Officer and a serving member of the French Navy – covered a distance of 191,636m or 118 miles.

said: “I organised this charity event in memory of a very close friend of mine who sadly passed away with cancer in December 2009.

distance of 165,000m in 12 hours and I’m glad to say we beat our target by a massive margin.” And a 20-strong team of

runners from 815 Naval Air Squadron in Yeovilton donned their running shoes to compete in the Bath Half Marathon, raising money for St Margaret’s Hospice Somerset and Dorothy House Hospice Care.

Bell ringing

SIX partially-sighted children from schools in Somerset tried their hands at a sport new to them when they visited RNAS Yeovilton to play Goalball. Goalball, an Olympic team game designed for blind or partially-sighted athletes, was invented in 1946 and has been an Olympic sport since 1976. It is played by teams of three

The players were hosted by Leading PTI ‘Ronnie’ Barker, who helped sports officer and Goalball coach Rebecca Bartlett. “The children did brilliantly

at their first attempt at a difficult game,” he said.

The team leader of the Vision Support Team, Marion Donaldson, was delighted with the day.

“Goalball proved a great success and they are all keen to have another go,” she said.

who try to throw a ball embedded with bells into the opponents’ goal.

“The aim was to row a Organiser LAET Dwain Powell

SPORT Relief, that biennial fundraising event, has sparked the usual Naval enthusiasm, as people in bases around the UK took up the challenge of the Sport Relief Mile.

Leading Physical Trainers hosted a Sport Relief Day, putting all PT classes through a mile on the Astro-turf before carrying out their normal lesson. The base’s field-gunners and

executive department ran several times around the parade ground to achieve the mile equivalent

(pictured right).

Collingwood’s executive officer Cdr Chris Lade was towed around the base in aid of the charity in a seaboat.

The officer also took part in a sponsored treadmill run which drew in personnel from across the base to rack up a total of 97.6 miles and raising £550. Up at Clyde Naval Base a team of eight rowers clambered onto their rowing machines for an indoor half-marathon row for Sport Relief.

Damien Ralls, David Rafferty, CPO Barry Greig, CPO John Eales, Cdr Martin Claxton, Lt Cdr Phil Blow and LS Dion Broadfoot each clocked up 21,097m on the machines and have raised over £1,100. Personnel from all three Services

at RAF Shawbury and the Defence Helicopter Flying School took to the airfield en masse to complete a mile for Sport Relief. Amid the huge turnout, it was

Lt Cdr Louise Wooller, Lt At HMS Collingwood, the

part in the marathon, albeit only a mile, is a great personal milestone as I have had a huge metal frame on my leg for over a year and haven’t been able to walk unaided in that time. “Not only is this a great opportunity for me to raise money and say thank you to SSAFA for all their help and support but also a great opportunity for me to challenge myself on a personal level which I am really looking forward to.” To sponsor Andrew and Phil,

visit www.ssafa.org.uk

A day on skis for BLESMA

A TEAM from the Naval Outdoor Centre in Germany has raised more than £2,500 for BLESMA, the British Limbless Ex-Servicemen’s Association, with a gruelling 24-hour ski tour. Starting at the bottom of the

was gale-force. The next climb was Kanzelwahn, 900m of ascent with conditions deteriorating by the minute and visibility down to 10 metres.

Ifen 2000 in Austria, the team, WO2 Paul Farr, POPTs Tony Newcombe, Johnathan Wilkins and Zoe Hennessey, LPT Jay Murphy, plus Dave Beuzeval, Vicki Warke and Jonathan May, led by the officer commanding the centre, Major Paul Gellender, climbed steadily for nearly four hours to reach the 1,981m top of the Steinmandl. The snow conditions were extremely good, but at 1130 at night finding the way back down was seriously challenging, as they were moving by torchlight with a 300m drop to the left. Next came the climb up towards the Hahlkopf during worsening weather and vicious snow, followed by a difficult descent and a very welcome break for dinner in the shelter.

After this short break the team continued their descent to the bottom of the Ifen 2000 and started the long skate out to the ski lift area. Then it was fairly easy going for the next five kilometres to the breakfast meeting point – but in true military fashion they made the rendezvous an hour early, which gave the team time to find a bakery for a hot drink. By now it was 0530 and the wind

A three-hour ascent saw them finally making the top and lunch. The skiers decided to ski down the piste on the Felhorn side, although the area had been closed by heavy snow. An hour later they reached the bottom, having put a fresh track down the entire mountain. Now the end was in sight, a long slog of 650m up to the Sollereck, and at 1815 they made the top and skied off through knee-deep powder to the car park below and the waiting van. Jonathan May, who organised the ski-tour, said: “The team had climbed just over 2,750m and travelled 35km in 24 hours, which considering the weather was a great effort. “For many this was a first and looking back it’s something that will stay with us all for the right reasons.

He added: “We all thought that the challenge was going to be difficult, but we never

how hard it would actually be. “But we were honoured to raise money for such a worthy charity as BLESMA, which helps people try and continue as normal a life as possible once they leave the Forces with a loss of limb or limbs.” To donate, go to www.

justgiving.com/jonathan-may

Black Duke runs

ONE hundred sailors aboard HMS Monmouth donned their running shoes and ran a mile each to raise money for the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity. Early on a calm morning in the Red Sea, Cdr Tony Long, Monmouth’s CO, ran the first mile, setting a hard standard to follow with a time of under six minutes. As the day progressed, the weather took a turn for the worse,

with strong headwinds making each mile that little bit more challenging for runners trying to keep their balance, but the sailors battled on.

When the final runner, Logs Eddie Luscombe, came across the finishing line, the stopwatch read 10h 44m 24s. The fastest times of the day were recorded by ABs Daniel Triffit and Richard ‘Taff’ Griffiths, both achieving 5m 10s, but everybody had a personal challenge to make their best time. The overall time will be entered in the Mike Till Trophy, awarded to the ship with the fastest time, and announced in July. The trophy’s presented in memory of CPO Mike Till, a keen runner and participant in the 100-mile relay before his sad loss in HMS Sheffield in 1982.

The event was organised by LPT Howard Peplow, who said: “Over the last five months, the ship’s company have worked hard at their physical fitness through circuit training with me and the equipment aboard.

the Naval contingent from 705 Naval Air Squadron, led by CO Lt Cdr Mark Scott, who won the competition as the most impressively-dressed contingent. – not surprising really when you see the photograph (right). The race gathered over £400 for the Sport Relief fund. And it was back on the rowing machines at BRNC who set up a 24-hour rowing race on the quarterdeck.

Organiser LPT Charleine Wain set up a challenge between cadets and staff to cover the distance to HMS Temeraire – some 158 miles.

A total more than surpassed by both team’s who raised over £1,000 between them.

Del boy gets on his bike

NEWS reaches us from Afghanistan that Del Tyler, currently serving there with 845 Naval Air Squadron, will celebrate his homecoming next month (June) not with a holiday but an 800-mile cycle ride around England.

Del and seven team-mates will set off from the Tall Trees Community Centre in Ilchester, near RNAS Yeovilton, on June 5 and return one week later, having cycled an average of 110 miles in two groups of four riders.

During the week the cyclists will visit Selly Oak Hospital, Headley Court. They also plan to cycle along Wootton Bassett High Street, dubbed ‘Highway for Heroes.’

The ‘BIKE 800’ teams are split, with the first team being made up of four RN cyclists, Al Wilson of 846 NAS, Stephen Ricketts of Mechanical Workshops and Jim McColl of 857 NAS in Culdrose. The second team consists of a Royal Marine and three civilians who are local to Ilchester, Joe Reed, who works with the

Mobile Air Ops Team and Ash Williamson, Chris Watson and Lee Riva, local quarrymen at Ham Hill in Somerset. The three support drivers are

serving and ex-naval, Steve Boyd is an instructor at HMS Sultan, George Lowes serves with MPGS and Keith Nursey is a Serco employee.

All donations to BIKE 800 will go to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity, the Royal British Legion, Help for Heroes, and St Margaret’s Hospice in Yeovil.

“The 100-mile challenge proved an ideal means test their fitness, grit and determination to see how they improved over the deployment, whilst earning money for a fantastic cause.” For two marines from the boarding team however, the ‘mile- athon’ was not quite enough of a challenge – so Sgt Andrew Thomas and L/Cpl Matthew Edwards ran 50 miles each during the Suez Canal transit. The Black Duke’s running raised more than £1,600.

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