I left school at 16 years old and had nothing, no qualifications, no direction and no real future. I joined the armed forces that same year and it gave me the bedrock of the life I have now. 

I met some of the best people I’ve ever known, from those times, and made some even better friends. 

Over the last 20 years of deployment in Afghanistan alone, there have been 457 deaths of UK armed forces personnel. The number of fatalities peaked during 2009 and 2010, when over 100 personnel were killed. Of the total 457 personnel who died whilst on deployment to Afghanistan 405 died because of hostile action.

During Operation Herrick, from 2002 to 2014, there were 616 serious or very serious casualties among armed forces. As with deaths, these casualties peaked in 2009 and 2010.

There were a total 7,807 field hospital admissions, although most admissions were related to disease or a non-battle injury. Around 28% (2,209) of admissions to field hospitals were those wounded in action.

Additionally, there were 7,477 medical air evacuations during the 12-year operation.

When these people were injured the bills don’t just stop rolling in. Families struggled, not only to adjust to life as an injured veteran but with the psychological effect of a career ended through the highest of sacrifices. Please help support those people and their families by giving whatever you can in sponsoring me for the Great North Run 2022

Every day, men and women have to leave their career in the Armed Forces as a result of physical or psychological wounds. Your fundraising helps them recover and get on with their lives. So far we've supported more than 25,000 people and won’t stop until every veteran gets the support they deserve.