I served as a policeman in the Royal Air Force for 22 years. I was medically discharged in 2019 with C-PTSD caused by my job, for the last 7 years doing computer forensics dealing with some very horrific child pornography cases, without any counselling as you can imagine my head is very broken now! It is bitter sweet though as I managed to uncover many evil people and prevent further abuse, so a price I was willing to pay. 

You may wonder why I am bothering to tell you any of this? When I was at one of my lowest ebbs and truly felt lost I was found by The Not Forgotten Association.

They invited me to a Brands Hatch track day they were organising and although I was very nervous and kept myself to myself I found I was surrounded by other veterans, some with physical disabilities and others with hidden ones like me and I felt safe amongst them as I listened to their stories and their banter.

Since then I have been honoured to attend other events and when you are stood beside two young marines who are double amputees, your imposter syndrome really kicks in and you say to them, I have no idea what I'm doing here beside real heroes but they listen to your story and say the same about you, it isn't just a humbling experience but it makes you realise you really aren't alone.

What has been most important to me though is the support they have given to Colleen, she has been my true rock throughout everything and The Not Forgotten Association has supported her too, I'm not sure where I would be now without my guardian angels Rosie and Anne and can never thank them fully. We have also been very fortunate to meet people like Johnnie and Carrie who are more like family to us now than friends.

It's for those reasons and more that I take every opportunity that I can to support this charity in any way that I can and am honoured that I have been invited to take part in a D-Day commemorative 80-mile cycle (80 miles for the 80th anniversary) which I will be competing alongside 8 other beneficiaries of the charity and also 8 serving members of the Royal Navy.

I am in training mode now and hope that you will support me to support them by giving any amount that you can and I will keep you up to date with my progress! There will also be plenty of pictures of Leffe to keep you all inspired!