At the end of May, I am joining serving and former soldiers and two other MPs in trying to tackle one of the world’s highest volcanoes, Cotopaxi in Ecuador at 19,347 feet. I am taking on this tough challenge to raise awareness of the Royal British Legion Battle Back Centre, the national rehabilitation centre which provides adaptive sports and adventurous training for injured servicemen and women.
The Battle Back Centre helps achieve the best possible recovery and either return to service duty or make a smooth transition to civilian life. Coaching is provided by Leeds Metropolitan University Carnegie School of Sport and Carnegie Great Outdoors, who will be leading the expedition. After visiting the Battle Back Centre and meeting my team members who have benefited from it, I have learned first-hand how important the work they do is, and that’s why we’re aiming to raise £10,000 so the Centre can carry on helping more injured service men and women.
The expedition itself will be a gruelling physical and mental challenge that will bring the team together to cope with high altitude, temperatures of-10C, acclimatisation and a gruelling final push for the summit of Cotopaxi starting at 1am. We are hoping that through this challenge we will highlight the challenges that our brave servicemen and women who have been injured face, particularly the less spoken about mental scars of conflict.
So please help me and the team with our big challenge and support the Royal British Legion Battle Back Centre and its important work by donating either through my Justgiving page or by sending a cheque payable to the Royal British Legion to Greg Mulholland MP, Battle Back Cotopaxi Challenge, 12 Holt Park Centre, Holt Road, LS16 7SR.