SUPPORT OUR PARAS is the only charity which exists solely to support The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces, looking after veterans, serving soldiers and families within our Airborne community.

They are there for our nation’s paratroopers through the good times and the bad; from the moment they join the Airborne family to the sounding of the last post.

I am a former Paratrooper and will turn 50 in 2025 and to 'celebrate' I will attempt to break the record for rowing around Great Britain. Half a lifetime ago, as a 25-year-old Parachute Regiment platoon commander, I was wounded in action during a hostage rescue in Sierra Leone but made a full recovery and subsequently commanded 1PARA machine guns platoon during the invasion of Iraq. Not all my former brothers in arms were so fortunate - and that's why I'm looking to you to help me raise funds for SUPPORT OUR PARAS.

Since leaving the military in 2005, I’ve completed a number of arduous challenges and hold the Guinness World Record for running a marathon with a 20lbs pack. However my first sport was rowing and I started thinking that it would be interesting to row down the river to the sea at Newhaven, turn right and keep going around the whole of Great Britain until I arrived back - so that's what I'm going to do in summer 2025.

The Parachute Regiment motto is ‘Ready for Anything’ and this rowing challenge takes inspiration from former Paratroopers John Ridgway and Chay Blyth who set the record for crossing the Atlantic in a rowing boat in 1966. It will require me to draw upon all the experience I’ve gained in the military and since and also learn plenty of new skills in order to deal with everything that the notoriously difficult British in-shore waters will throw at me. I intend to get around safely (and fast) and raise as much as possible for SUPPORT OUR PARAS.

Please give whatever you can.