COLLECTING FOR HEROES THE COTSWOLD WAY

10 November 2020

If you feel that walking to the shops wearing an anti-virus mask is a challenge, spare a thought for 2 Gloucestershire - based soldiers who marked Remembrance Day by running 32.5 miles of the Cotswold Way wearing military grade gas masks.

Their challenge began at Chipping Campden’s war memorial as dawn broke and their only break was at 11am when they stopped for 2 minutes to remember fallen comrades.

They’d reached Charlton Kings, in Cheltenham, and climbed a total of 4,600 feet in height 

as well as cover the 30-mile distance when it became too dark to continue any further in safety. While the run’s length would be regarded as quite an achievement by most people, Warrant Officer Tommy Whitehead, who came up with the plan during the first lockdown, earlier in the year, is now planning to use it as a practice event for an even tougher endurance challenge in 2021. That’s when his running partner, Corporal Henry Gibson, along with a third colleague, Corporal Connor Woods, who was on duty on Remembrance Sunday, will attempt a 100 mile run, again wearing the gas masks along most of the Cotswold Way in January.

They are doing it to raise funds for SSAFA, (the Soldiers Sailors and Airmen’s Families Association) which is the country’s longest established armed force’s charity.

Their initial plan was to have friends and colleagues collect donations for the charity along the gruelling 102-mile-long cross-country trail, but decided that would be impossible when the second lockdown was announced, meaning they now have to adhere to the government’s social distancing rules.

Instead they have launched an on-line appeal to raise funds for the work SSAFA carries out to help dead and injured colleagues. They are using three internet fund-raising sites to spread the word about SSAFA’s work and set the pace for Sunday’s run as one that would be a realistic practice for the longer distance they will attempt in the New Year .

Said Tommy Whitehead: “As well as running in the general service respirators, we will also be carrying pictures of fallen comrades on each of our events, in memory of the sacrifices they and their families have made on behalf of the country.

https://www.facebook.com/ssafa.gloucestershire/posts/2810684499211191

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