Edition 60
As a valued supporter, we are pleased to bring you up-to-speed with a weekly round-up of activities from RMA – The Royal Marines Charity and the wider Corps Family.
This week, we bring you news of some superb fundraisers whose successful challenges, be it large or small, have reaped huge rewards; others whose awesome ambitions know no bounds – and we introduce you to two wonderful new Charity Ambassadors.
Thank you for your continued support.
Inspirational new Charity Ambassadors
We are delighted to announce two new Charity Ambassadors – former Royal Marines Commando Officer, Joe Winch who together with his wife, Amy – a founding member of the Portsmouth Military Wives Choir – lives near Gosport in Hampshire.
Joe is a climber and mountaineer who summited Mount Everest in 2019 with 65 Degrees North and is the CEO of Climb2Recovery – a charity that supports seriously wounded service people and veterans through a year-round programme of adaptive climbing and mountaineering across the UK and Alps.
He was medically discharged from the Royal Marines with Complex PTSD as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2021, a condition he has frequently and very publicly written and spoken about to raise awareness and educate others.
Amy, a Chartered Town Planner with a MSc in Town Planning, is a Principal Planning Officer at Winchester City Council.
During her time singing with the Portsmouth Military Wives Choir, she recorded three albums and performed with the Commonwealth Band at Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
Since Joe’s diagnosis in 2017, Amy has spoken with and supported many other families of service people and veterans suffering from psychological injuries. Amy has also spoken publicly of her experiences of living with and caring for someone suffering and recovering from PTSD.
In the year to date, RMA – The Royal Marines Charity’s Health & Wellbeing team has awarded 444 welfare and benevolence grants totalling £547,548 that includes those to 378 veterans and 41 serving Royal Marines.
The Royal Marines Association Central Office team has also supported 132 funerals.
Help with moving on
Our Head of Employment & Education (E&E), Zoe Darnbrough, is extremely grateful to Marcus Peters (pictured middle) from RWE for giving an excellent briefing presentation to a group of Royal Marines’ service leavers.
She says: “Marcus gave a clear insight into the ever-growing renewables sector and how RWE supports service leavers and veterans. He also shared his own transition story from the RN Submarine Service which was most insightful.”
One of the service leavers attending added: “Marcus’ transition story was really helpful to hear, it gave me a bit more confidence in my own resettlement journey.”
At RMA – The Royal Marines Charity, our E&E team has a wealth of knowledge about the transition from military life and what to expect in civvy street. They are much in demand to give careers’ advice and guidance to service leavers, veterans and spouses.
Reaching peaks of fitness
This Sunday (13th August), Ben Clough – a super-fit Royal Marines Physical Training Instructor at Commando Training Centre Royal Marines in Lympstone, Devon who originally hails from Lancashire – starts his gruelling National Three Peaks challenge with an extra endurance ‘twist’.
He’s not only planning to climb all three of the highest mountain peaks in the UK (Ben Nevis, Cumbria’s Scafell Pike and Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), but also run the entire distance between start and finish from Scotland to Wales, all within 10 days!
Ben says: “My ‘Summit Attack’ will be the biggest challenge I have embarked on to date. The whole route, including the peaks, is 482 miles. I plan to run between 50-55 miles each day climbing a total of 14,500m (47,592 ft) – one-and-a-half times that of scaling Mount Everest.”
He hopes to raise £48,200 (£100 per mile of his route) for two charities close to his heart, including RMA – The Royal Marines Charity, the tally to date already close to an incredible £5,000!
Ben says: “I want to do everything possible to raise as much money as absolutely possible and plan to smash this challenge out of the park.”
Brothers on top form
Huge congratulations and thanks to serving Royal Marine Archie Macdonald-Buchanan and his two brothers who last weekend climbed the UK’s three highest peaks in just 24 hours, driving between Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon and raising close to a truly magnificent £4,000 (inc Gift Aid) for RMA – The Royal Marines Charity. Hoofing!
Zulu Commandos plan to take on Japan
Danny Ensor (pictured left) is already training for his ‘Zulu Commandos’ challenge of a lifetime next year when he plans to take on the extreme challenge of cycling from the very south of Japan to its northernmost reaches during March 2024 – and hoping to raise £30,000 for RMA – The Royal Marine Charity.
Danny, who was in the military and earned his ‘green lid’, after Commando training, was originally going to do this much anticipated mammoth ride with his uncle, Chris ‘Brum’ Dooley, who however passed away suddenly last year having recently retired after 34 years’ service in the Marines.
Danny says: “The journey will take me roughly four weeks to complete and I am lucky to have my best Oppo, Emanuel Gramada (who has plans to join the Marines soon) also making the journey with me. In the run-up, we will be doing plenty of smaller fundraising events to get the ball rolling.”
The first was a supermarket collection during which they recently raised a fantastic £800! Huge thanks – we wish them well with their ongoing training regime.
Plaudits to Parish Plodders!
We are hugely grateful to all those who took part in the annual ‘Parish Plod’ across Dartmoor that was organised by Alisha West from the village of Shaugh in Devon. This year, RMA – The Royal Marines Charity was privileged to be chosen as their charity of choice and our fundraising team was thrilled that the event raised a magnificent £2,905.73!
Hottest tickets in town
Commemorations were held around the country to mark the 70th anniversary on the 27th July of the ending of the Korean War – the armistice of what is often called ‘The Forgotten War’ and in which men of 41 (Royal Marines) Commando were involved.
And in September, during their first ever tour of six UK cities, The Massed Bands of His Majesty’s Royal Marines will play a powerful and poignant musical tribute to the conflict as part of a varied and often lively programme of pieces to suit all tastes.
The spectacular performances will be on the scale only ever before seen at the Massed Bands’ annual sold-out performances at the Mountbatten Festival of Music in London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Demand has been so great at many of the concert venues that some have even opened up extra seats. Gateshead and Leicester concerts have already sold out but there are seats still available in Cardiff, Nottingham, Manchester and Liverpool – so don’t delay, book today!
On exercise
The Royal Navy News reports that Royal Marines were ‘at the tip of the spear during the largest military exercise in the Southern Hemisphere.
The UK’s Commando Force are ramping up their presence in the Indo-Pacific and, after a mission to South Korea earlier this year, were deployed to Australia – embarking on helicopter carrier HMAS Adelaide – as 13 nations demonstrated their combined military might.
In amongst more than 34,000 troops, Royal Marines strike teams from 40 Commando carried out surveillance, reconnaissance and strike missions, establishing a foothold inland to pave the way for larger forces to land ashore on Australia’s eastern coast.’