Edition 15
This week, our update includes news of a whopping laptop donation, updates on some fantastic fundraising challenges – and we check out some of the hoofing hounds in the Royal Marines Family!
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We went Wild!
The sun shone down over the Bank Holiday weekend for the more than seven thousand people who attended Bear Grylls’ four-day Gone Wild Festival. As the Festival’s chosen charity, we receive 10% of all general admission tickets to help us towards supporting serving and former Royal Marines and their families
The team was out in force and kept busy especially at the Charity stall, doing great business with their fabulous face-glittering skills and raising over £1,600; and there were gasps from onlookers as many daring brave souls managed to tick off some of their bucket list challenges as they ventured across our fire and Lego walks.
Most importantly, we couldn’t have met the Charity’s Festival commitments without our wonderful team of volunteers who worked extremely hard with long hours on gate duties and helping out at various locations around the Powderham Castle estate.
Enormous thanks for so generously giving of your time – you did the Royal Marines family proud. Thank you for your tireless dedication, enthusiasm and generosity throughout the event.
Tickets are on sale now for next year’s event, taking place between 24th – 27th August 2023. Click the button below for more information – and to enter a competition to win some free tickets!
Making good things happen
Stephen Gilkes, Treasurer and Membership Secretary of the Charity’s City of London Branch presented Mark Bailie, CEO of ComparetheMarket.com with a commemorative plaque on behalf of The Royal Marines Charity for generously donating 20 laptops. These will be distributed to those branches that are in desperate in need of IT equipment, allowing their Members to connect to the internet and take full advantage of the myriad of support and welfare services the Charity provides. This will be such an amazing help and benefit so many – thank you so much.
Although not having served in the Marines, Stephen has very strong personal ties to the Corps, and generously gives much of his time to the Charity and is one of our many valued volunteers.
Explaining his commitment, he explains: “I feel privileged to have been raised totally immersed in the Royal Marine ethos which has strongly influenced me all my life, and just wanted to give something back.”
Stephen’s grandfather was a Royal Marine, being awarded the DSM for his part in the Zeebrugge Raid; and his father joined the Marines in 1938, was on HMS Warspite during the battle of Salerno in 1943 when it was severely damaged by a German glider bomb, and last saw action during the Yangtze incident in 1949 aboard HMS London before leaving the Corps in 1954 after 16 years’ service.
What a proud, inspirational story – we are so grateful for your support.
Ocean Wave team ticks off first challenge…
Challenge one completed for Ocean Wave challenge! Congratulations to Serving RM’s Captain Chris Abrams (‘Tank’) and Cpl Ben Morris who have successfully completed their circumnavigation by kayak of the Isle of Wight, the first of three challenges in aid of our Royal Marines Commando 80 campaign.
Distance – 63.4 miles/102.5 km: Average speed 3.6 mph: (Moving) Time – 19 hours 36 mins
Tank explains: “The RMA serves not only those like us who are serving members of the Royal Marines, but those within the wider past and present RM family. There are countless examples of them stepping up to support its people in their time of need; some well publicised, some not so. It’s this tireless work that goes on in the background, that inspires me the most and I have been humbled to have seen this first-hand on multiple occasions.”⠀
We’ll be closely following Ocean Wave’s progress, which is due to finish at Lympstone during Corps Family Weekend on 10th September.
…while 4H kicks off!
Last weekend, a team of serving Royal Marines aka ‘Hidden Help for Hidden Heroes’ (4H) carried out their first fundraiser with a static bike challenge in Exeter’s Princesshay shopping precinct where they cycled the distance between Exeter and the Houses of Parliament. Thank you to everyone involved and to the City of Exeter for its generosity and support.
It’s all part of the four-strong team’s plan to raise money for those who have come before. “We want to keep our identities hidden as we wish for the focus not to be on us, but on them – the ‘Hidden Heroes who often live unseen in our society, who could need help and support in dealing with the sacrifices they have made.”
In early October 2022, the team will, in succession:
– swim from the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines to Exmouth War Memorial (3 miles)
– run to 40 Commando RM (36 miles)
– cycle to Gunnislake, Dartmoor (75 miles)
– kayak their Klepper canoes to 30 Commando IX Group (20 miles)
– yomp/tab their Klepper canoes and field kit to 42 Commando (10 miles)
To visit the Hidden Help for Hidden Heroes fundraising page, please click here.
Still yomping
And Team Commando 80 ladies had another blast at the 40-mile yomp from Slapton Sands Memorial to the Pegasus Bridge Memorial in Exeter this weekend – this time in reverse! Team members Charlotte and Tamsin donned their trainers and took to the hills in style. The team is currently sitting at a whopping £14,765 inc gift aid, with one yomper left to complete their walk – and a couple of sky dives still left to come.
A huge thank you to everyone involved in the team – what a fantastic effort for the Commando 80 campaign!
Here to help
Our Health & Wellbeing team were particularly humbled by the above sentiment contained in a thank you e-mail from one of the Charity’s recent beneficiaries.
Hoofing woofers!
Last Friday was Dog Appreciation Day! We asked members of the Royal Marines Family to send in photos of their hoofing hounds, and these are just a few we received!