On 18 September 2010 a team of volunteers from the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency will head off to St Giron in the south of . The team will be undertaking the 'Freedom Trail' to raise money for St Dunstan's http://www.st-dunstans.org.uk. St Dunstan’s is a national charity providing crucial assistance to blind ex-Service men and women and their families. By raising money we help St Dunstaners regain their independence and make the most of the opportunities available to them through rehabilitation, training, support and advice.
The 80km long Freedom Trail follows one of the toughest and most challenging wartime escape routes, over the central Pyrenees into , taken by WWII escapees. The route was originally established for fleeing Frenchmen attempting to reach to join the Free French Forces. This arduous mountainous trek takes 4 days to complete and the team aim to be fully self-sufficient throughout. This will be a challenging and demanding event and to make it more interesting the team are very pleased to be accompanied by Don Planner who is himself a St Dunstaner. Don served in the REME for 13 years and in 1975 was injured in a fuel tank explosion, suffering severe damage to the brain and facial area that resulted in Don being blinded. He quickly became involved with St Dunstan's and indeed raised £7500 for them when he became the first blind person to reach the summit of . Not only do we have Don who is a direct connection to St Dunstan's but we also have Neil Pennington in the team whose Grandfather, Alfred Benjamin Pennington, volunteered for the Great War in 1914 aged 19. He joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and fought at Ypres, the , and at Passchendaele. When the war ended he went back to his work in the (Stoke). Over the years, his sight gradually faded, possibly as a result of exposure to gas attacks in the trenches. He became a St Dunstan resident shortly after the end of the Second World War when his sight finally failed. These St Dunstan's connections make the trek even more important to the team and will inspire us to success and raising lots of money for this truly deserving cause.
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