The Foundation - www.jtyaf.org/
Lt John 'JT' Thornton RM, from Ferndown, Dorset, was tragically killed, aged 22, in southern Afghanistan on 30th March 2008.
John lived his dream and died doing the job he loved.
The charity has been founded with the simple objective that John wanted as his legacy: to encourage and assist young people to 'climb as high as they can dream'.
They award
an annual grant and a number of scholarships and bursaries to each of
the organisations that they support. This will allow nominated
individuals or groups to achieve specific goals, or to encourage
personal development.
As ex-members of the organisations the Foundation supports who knew John, this is a charity we all believe strongly in and want to contribute to achieving it's goals.
When Alex asked around at the end of 2008 for who might be interested in doing an Everest expedition in 2009 he was delighted when there was an instant response from 3 very good friends. It became clear straight away that this wasn't just going to be an idea. The 4 of us have known each other through combinations of School, the Air Training Corps and The Junior Leaders and have all been away together at some point (though when we were much younger!). So not only is this trip a fantastic chance of a lifetime to see Nepal, the Himalayas and Mt Everest but it's a reunion of sorts since we all went separate ways. One thing became clear when the organisation started and that was that we all wanted to raise money for the JTYAF. We had all decided this independently prior to discussion, no surprise given our common origins.
Dave Symonds: Age 23, ex Cadet and now Civilian Instructor for 2358 Ferndown Sqn. Currently working as a Development Test Engineer for Armfield Ltd.
Thank you very much for your time and donations.
The guys.
