Hello All! We are currently students on the challenging Air Cadet Junior Leaders Course which develops leadership and management in young people through military training. It is a very mentally and physically demanding course and results in the ILM Level 3 Award in Leadership and Management; Part of the course involves us organising a charity event for the John Thornton Young Achievers Foundation. John Thornton himself was awarded the top student on the Junior Leaders course and also helped other candidates on the course when he returned as directing staff. John was commissioned into the Royal Marines in 2004. He deployed to Afghanistan in September 2007 in command of Charlie Company’s Fire Support Group and it was in this role that he excelled, until he was tragically killed 2 weeks away from coming home safely. He was always “thrilled at the prospect of leading Marines on operations.”

The JTYAF was set up in the name of John Thornton. The charity supports young people from a wide range of youth organisations providing them with scholarships and bursaries to support their personal development and the pursuit of their ambitions. The entire endurance event will be completed by three members of the Royal Air force Air cadets: Sam Carey; Zach Parton and Michael Hastings. In addition there will selected cadets to help out at the final stage. This event consists of a 45.4KM cycle from MOD Stafford to Leek, followed by a 22KM run to Kilnworx climbing centre in Stoke and then a 2008m climb. At this final stage selected cadets will be asked to join us and we will collectively climb the 2008m with relevant qualified members of staff from 388 squadron there to assist. The distances represent the 454 British casualties in Afghanistan and John being killed in Afghanistan in 2008 at the young age of 22. More information about the JTYAF can be found at https://www.jtyaf.org/.