WALKING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF OUR ANCESTORS & OF HEROS 2024-04-05

Good afternoon all, I walked the CF in 2021 with a good friend who was medically retired from the London Fire Brigade due to cancer, he had seen a fair bit, major train crashes, terrorist attacks, where he was one of the 1st on scene to a tube bomb (7/7), & major high-rise tower fires, he was diagnosed with PTSD during his cancer treatment. Being Catholic he decided to walk the CF, being in another emergency service, I joined him....thus was born my love of walking, & the benefits it gives, but importantly, my love for the camino. I became involved with a mental health & PTSD charity, The Curtis Palmer Program, & through them I was tasked to look after the UKs most injured soldier from the Afghan campaign, Ben Parkinson, whilst on a expedition to Norway in 2023. I had badly injured my leg, before going, & here I was complaining of pain & swelling, to be told by Ben, " dont know what your moaning about, my knees are all over Afghan".....not a lot I could say to that. In March 2025, we intend to take Ben back to Norway to recreate the Hero's of Telemark, we will push/pull him on a specially adapted slegde, living some 3600ft about sea level, in a very inhospitable area. To raise funds I'm going to walk the St James Way, in the UK, before flying to Spain to do The camino Ingles. This will also a test for me, as I snapped my quadriceps tendon in February 2023, had 2 operations, borderline sepsis, then had a massive analyphalctic shock during the 2nd operation.....all in all, I had a bad day.....Hopefully I have managed to attach my fundraising page, if anyone has some spare change, please donate. The Curtis Palmer Program works on the 5 principles for better mental health:
Connect with others
Learn new skills
Physical exercise
Pay attention to the present moment
Give to others.
There are a few military charities that will take people on these sorts of expeditions, but none for the emergency services.......
Thanks for reading