Page 57 - Mercian Eagle 2013

Help for Heroes, LCpl Hyland takes the test
In November 2012 I cycled across Mexico for the charity Help for Heroes. The 600km challenge started from the eastern coast of Veracruz, through to the western Pacific coastline. There was a group of 24 volunteers ranging between 24 – 62 years old, both male and female, the challenge took nine gruelling days to complete, but the banter and camaraderie within the group made it less painful.
I was inspired to take on the challenge during a winter tour of Op Herrick 15, where I witnessed a friend stand on an I.E.D causing amputations to both of his lower limbs and part of his left hand. Seeing the injuries first hand made me feel like I had to do more
to help the casualty than just aiding the CASEVAC. A couple of months later in December, I went to Camp Bastion for transport
to go home for R and R, I had seen a Help for Heroes leaflet advertising a series of challenges they were hosting. I kept hold
of it and when I returned to the checkpoint after my leave I got permission to undergo the challenge. I had a set minimum target of £3200 to raise, £1200 of this had to be raised by the end of May 2012, a month after we were due to come home from Afghanistan.
This was achieved by a bag packing weekend at a local ASDA supermarket in Bromborough, Wirral set up by Help for Heroes, with help from my Mum, and several local volunteers which had been recruited from the internet. We raised a total of £1480. Following this I had to think of other ways to raise extra money to meet the target that I had set. I approached the Total Fitness gym in Chester to use an exercise bike to cycle 200 miles in two days in their foyer I raised £420. I then went to the Crowne Plaza hotel in Chester where I used to work when I was younger they agreed to my organising
a charity fund-raising event for the occasion. The date was set for the 24th August 2012, the evening would consist of a three course meal, a raffle and auction, comedian, live band, a photographer and a DJ; this was open to both members of the Regimental family and the public. I applied to multiple companies, local businesses and restaurants to donate prizes for the raffle and auction. My friend ran a DJ company and was happy to provide his services and the band as it was for a good cause. Organising the prizes was tiring as I had to do this in my own time in the evening after finishing work and I dedicated a lot of time doing this.
The event was advertised in a local paper where I got a full page spread. Trying to sell tickets was stressful as our battalion were
on Op Olympics at the time so tickets came through my door at home and I couldn’t be there to sell them. Luckily my friends and family are very supportive of my job and knew I was passionate about this cause and managed to sell 104 tickets for me which filled out the room at the hotel. The evening went really well: everybody had a great time and wanted me to make it an annual event. We successfully raised £1400 that night so all the stress paid off.
Another gym I go to, The Fitness Factory in Ellesmere Port let me use an exercise bike to do a weekend of cycling at a local Morrison’s supermarket foyer. I cycled for six hours a day and got a lot of support from the members of the public who donated change into the buckets I had next to me. A total sum of £1350 was raised doing this. Finally I managed to raise just over £500 through sponsor forms passed around the Battalion and friends giving me a total of £5150 and smashing my minimum target.
Since the challenge I have been recognised for my dedication
to the charity and as a result have been awarded a Commander’s Land Forces Commendation which was presented by Major General Cowan. I plan to carry on raising money for the charity by taking on another challenge that will test me. I enjoyed making a difference and being a part of such an amazing charity, which helps people
like my mate who has suffered such an injury to get back on track and cope with his new life. It was a bonus to be recognised and awarded in the way I have been for my efforts, especially as there are thousands of people raising money for charities everyday.
Exercise SKIRMISH SURFER by Capt G B A Tyldesley
Marooned in landlocked Afghanistan and trapped by the dusty repetitions and rituals of running RSOI training in Camp Bastion, C (Skirmish) Company yearned for the running waters and abundant greenery of their native island where they
could finally shed the
clogging HERRICKisms
of the last decade and
return to a simple,
some have even called
it contemplative, life of
classical Infanteering,
built on its two pillars
of section attacks and
beer consumption.......
and so it was that Ex SKIRMISH SURFER was conceived.
As the elements sweep down on Devon from their 3,000 mile trans-Atlantic journey the damp, cold, wind and other assorted meteorological nastiness tends to miss
the low lying immediate coastal area and instead to incessantly collide with 600m high Dartmoor, whose huge line in morasses, bogs, and squelchy marshland of all types acts as a type of giant sponge to the South
Then, with hands firmly thrust into fleece – lined pockets, we walked back to the warm car talking earnestly about how much we had actually loved various hard exercises in the past and what a shame it was we weren’t going to be the ones getting frozen and soaked and exhausted.
The plan, as is so often the case with great ideas, was devilish in its simplicity. In early July a week of training on the moors, Platoon led, taking the Company complete from the very basics of why things are
seen, up to Platoon attacks, ambushes and advance to contact, followed by a week of mountain biking, coasteering, surfing and cultural study and assimilation in Newquay. We deployed with a veritable Armada of vehicles, much to the delight of the MTO, including a chronically unreliable refrigerated vehicle which oscillated between appearing to preserve food and then sneakily heating it up and rendering it inedible when your back
Western seaboard. Aside from the craggy Tors which twist above its high features, there is little to aid the navigator seeking to move through the bleak, eerily beautiful terrain so famously depicted in Sir Conan Doyle’s Hound of the Baskervilles. The very
ground is unforgiving, treacherous and tiring, making it a favourite haunt of the ‘Bootnecks’. So far, so good, we thought. Good, challenging terrain, just what the blokes want and a few of them are almost certain to stack it into those deep bogs.
Aside from the craggy Tors which twist above its high features, there is little to aid the navigator...
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
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