Leslie John Binns is an ex-serviceman with a military career spanning over 13 years. In this time he has served in Bosnia, Iraq & Afghanistan. On his first tour of Afghanistan he was awarded a Chief of Joint Operations Commendation & on his second tour was awarded a Queens Commendation for Bravery. He has escaped death on numerous occasions whilst on operational tours, however he succumbed to a life changing injury when he was left blind in one eye. An Afghan Soldier stepped on an Improvised Explosive Device which took the lives of three soldiers. Les who was in the vicinity of the blast was peppered with shrapnel in the face, arm and leg.
On his return to the UK Les underwent several painful operations to save the integrity of his eye. Although it was saved, Les was left permanently blind in one eye.
Since leaving the Army in 2010 Les has suffered from PTSD. After trying to seek help he found the best medicine was to head into the mountains to seek solace away from the problematic transitions from military to civilian life.
In 2015 Les decided that he needed a fresh challenge and wanted it to be the ultimate test and also to show that injured ex-servicemen, whether mental or physical can achieve their respective goals. So he decided to attempt to summit the worlds highest mountain (Mt Everest-8848m).
It was whilst on Everest he gave up his dream of summiting and rescued a stricken Indian climber (Sunita Hazra) and attempted to rescue a second (Subash Paul), both well into the notorious Death zone above 8000m. Sadly despite Les risking his own life in the attempted rescue Subash later passed away.
The media interest went global & Les featured in news papers and on TV shows around the world for his selfless act on that fateful night.
Now Les has not let anything deter him from his next attempt. So along with raising money for his next summit bid he also intends to raise funds for ABF The Soldiers Charity who helped retrain him on his exit from the military.
