Walking With The Wounded (WWTW) is a fantastic national charity, which supports British Military veterans and their families to adjust to civilian life. They have a vast array of services including Head Start, a scheme providing 12-1 private psychological therapy, employment training programmes, and services for veterans to access available accommodation for themselves and their families.
Each year (with the exception of 2020), WWTW arrange and run their ‘Cumbrian Challenge’ to fundraise. The Challenge consists of hiking in the beautiful Lake District, and offers 3 routes:
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Peak - one peak, 10km, 641m ascent
- Tough - nine peaks, 26km, 1732m ascent
- Tougher - 12 peaks, 32km, 1885m ascent.
This year, our team took on the Peak route, which took us just over four hours to complete.
We arrived the afternoon before the challenge at the event field in Grasmere for a safety briefing, and were given our maps, numbers and trackers for the next morning. Teams taking part have to be entirely self-sufficient, so being well prepared and packing the right amount was part of the challenge.
The event field was set up with space for many of those taking part to camp on site, showering facilities, and a marquee with tables, a bar and food truck. We met with a few of the fantastic people working for WWTW who set up the event. Even those not taking part were ecstatic to be there.
We also had the chance to meet other people taking part the following morning including groups of veterans, families and teams from corporate sponsors of WWTW.
The event started in the early hours of Saturday morning, with staggered start times for the different routes. Our route started at 6:45am, so we arrived at around 6:15am, got settled and had a coffee and breakfast at the event field.
The toughest part of the route was the first 10 minutes, which was a steep incline up to the path we would go on to follow. It was fantastic to see so many groups of people interacting and offering words of encouragement, or a hand to help each other up.
As we continued, teams became more and more spread out. We ended up walking the rest of the route closely following a group of veterans, who we soon learned had never met each other before that weekend. They helped us with map reading and kept morale high when the ascent became more and more challenging. We shared the experience with them, and they opened up to us about their experiences during their careers. They also spoke about their lives since leaving the Military.
After reaching the finish line, the event field came alive. The volunteers at WWTW and teams who’d already returned welcomed us back with applause and medals. Drinks were available and there were stands from the British Army Reserve and BAE Systems.
Spirits were high, and this continued throughout the afternoon as more and more teams returned from their hike.
WWTW plan to run the Challenge on an even bigger scale next year. They also want to have a family fun and festival feel to the event, with more stalls and more volunteers taking part.
We’re proud to have supported this charity and to have raised funds for them. We’re honoured to be able to take part in this event. It was a fantastic experience and we hope to take part again next year.
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