On Saturday 26th January our dear friend Ben St Joseph tragically died in a mountaineering fall whilst climbing Ben Nevis. He was a loving son and brother, mentor, housemate and a good friend to many. 

Benji was the original action man. His attitute to life always pushed those around him to do more than they otherwise would have. So a group of us thought we would compete in this year's "Tough Mudder" - a 12 mile obstacle course designed by the Special Forces to test all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie. We want to take on this crazy challenge to honour the memory of our dear friend.

This would have been a walk in the park for Benji... In his few years at OTC he had won both the Reserve Forces, and University Cups for the Devizes to Westminster canoe race and hoped to win both again this year, he earned a Gold Medal at Cambrian Patrol, passed the Airborne Student Parachute Selection Course, and competed in the Spean Bridge Commando Race, and the British Army CIOR Pentathlon team. He had also come top in his military professional exam, (MLDP2) in his year, and was a huge character in the rugby club. On top of all this he was studying medicine full time at the University of Bristol and he had just been commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps.

When we first signed up we were raising money for Mountain rescue and thank you to all of those people who helped up raise 320 pounds for them. Since then Benji's mother has created a link that enables us to raise for Medicines for Muheza- a hospital that Benji worked in in Tanzania and we will continue to raise for them.

To find out more about the race check out the site: http://toughmudder.co.uk

Team:

Celestine Weegenaar "Mother Tougher"
Sam Gilbert "Gilbear"
Ferenc Los "Von Dutch II"
Rhys Byrne "Riss"
Jonny Marler