Friends take on epic Commando challenge

30-mile yomp to raise £30K

A group of friends are taking on a daunting challenge to raise funds for charity Hopsiscare.

Simon Haworth's wife Natalie was cared for by the hospice during her last few weeks following a recurrence of breast cancer.

In her memory, he and 5 of his friends are hoping to raise £30,000 by taking on the Royal Marines Commando final assessment – a 30-mile ‘Yomp’ across Dartmoor, carrying a minimum of 21lbs – in under 9 hours.

They will run and speed march the route over rugged terrain from Okehampton to Ivybridge on Saturday 18 May.

Simon said “My friend Will Jerrold is a Royal Marines Commando and he will be leading our group. As civilians, the Yomp will be very challenging for us and this is important to me to pay tribute to everything Nat went through. This is my nod to her to recognise her strength and determination.

We’re aiming to complete our Yomp in 8.5 hours – I think it’s the quickest we can manage as we’re all a bit older and our knees are going! The timing is important to me as a reminder that the presence of our loved ones is a time-limited and precious gift.”

His friend Phil said, “We are six old blokes trying to do something about it. We’re aiming to raise £30,000, which equates to £1,000 per mile. If we can make our target, we’ll have raised just over 1% of the funding gap and if 99 other groups do the same, we’ll close that gap!

You can add some money to the pot by clicking here.