Dear All,

Thank you to everyone so much for getting behind our recent Ski challenge in aid of raising funds for the Skiing With Heroes charity.  It was an immensely rewarding weekend for the whole team and to see our fundraising in action really was quite something.  There was a real mix of veterans present.  Some were relatively new to their situations and others who have dealt with their injuries for a number of years who are incredible ambassadors for the charity.  No matter what stage of life they were at, one thing was for certain, all had incredible stories to tell and it is undoubtable that the charity makes a huge difference to their rehabilitation.

The rehab process takes on many forms whether it be pain management, confidence boosting or networking with the target of employment in mind.  To give one example, there was one individual with us who had been so struck down psychologically by his injuries, so much so that after being discharged from the services he was then unable to leave his own flat for over 9 months(!) and was incapable of even making eye contact. While we were away with them at the weekend, following the Ski with Heroes’ mentoring program, he stood up in front of a room of around 100 people and gave a talk about his experience!   An incredible turnaround and almost impossible to comprehend that it was the same person standing up in front of us.  He concluded his story by telling us that that morning he had been offered (and accepted) his first job outside the army since his accident.  A wonderful success story that is repeated time and time again by this wonderful charity.

Regarding the challenge itself - we were up against some pretty stiff competition on the Friday marathon and to make things more challenging, it was pretty much white out conditions – perfect for your first visit to a particular region!  After 8 hours of navigating our way through heavy, moisture laden white clouds we managed to post a relatively respectable distance between the 4 of us.

The great orange disc in the sky appeared on Saturday morning and we were able to get the giant slalom runs in before the weather began to close in again during the late afternoon.  All of us managed to keep the gates on the outside of our legs as opposed to the alternative, so a positive experience all round!  Some of the wounded veterans were showing off there adaptive ski abilities and it was mind boggling what they were able to achieve.  One of the top 10 finishes in the slalom was a guy who had lost his sight in Afghanistan following an IED blast 24 months ago.  He had skied only once (!) before he sustained his injury and yet with the aid of his ski buddy shouting ‘turn left now!’……‘turn right now!’….’STOP!!!!!’ he was able to record one of the fastest times on the day.  No wonder he was also part of one of the teams that recorded the largest distance covered in the white out!!!!

A number of awards were handed out on Saturday night at the closing dinner and it gives me great pleasure to announce that team BPL / Beazley were awarded the Victor Ludorum for the best all round contribution to the weekend!  Due to our fundraising efforts and the results on the mountain, we came in the top spot. I have no doubt that the largest factor here was the fundraising and that, of course, comes down to all of you and your wonderful support.

The four of us in Team BPL / Beazley and, more importantly, our new friends are hugely grateful! Thank you again and if anyone would like more information about the charity and how to get involved, please don’t hesitate to contact us. The charity offers support services to the veterans that go well beyond the mountain so if you are not an Alpine activist and feel you could give up an hour of your time each month over the phone for mentoring, it would go an awfully long way. Also, our JustGiving page will remain open for the next few weeks so if you didn’t get a chance the first time round….. any donation (large or small) would be a huge help to these guys.

The team also planning to host either a lunch or dinner in the City in the coming months where some of the veterans will be happy to meet you and talk about the charity directly.  If you would be interested in attending or perhaps taking a table for this event please do let us know.  details will be provided in due course.

Thanks again!