Tough Mudders Do It For Charity
An Intrepid Tri-Service team representing the Navy, Army and Airforce based at Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton and Dartmouth are competing for charity in arguably one of the toughest and most gruelling event in Britain. The crew of six are planning to run, crawl, slip, slide and climb their way around a fearsome 12 mile obstacle course through energy sapping mud and in the depths of a cold Northern winter. The suitably named 'Tough Mudder’ is taking place in November near Manchester, which will mean only one thing and it’ll probably be falling from the sky!
The Tough Mudder is hardcore. It’s an obstacle course usually between 10 to 12 miles long, designed by Special Forces to test a team’s all-round strength, stamina, determination, and camaraderie. Tough Mudder events have challenged half a million inspiring participants worldwide. Originating from across the water in America, they are said to be some of the toughest obstacles courses in the world and comprises of a mixture of unforgiving challenging obstacles.
The basis of every Tough Mudder is it should test the whole body to the ultimate over a 12 mile course and foster team spirit. The Manchester event will involves extremes of freezing water, fire, 12 feet high walls, sinking mud, barbed wire, tunnels through and under water, finishing off with a mine field full of high voltage electric wires. Competitors can expect at least one of the 25 obstacles to be a surprise, unique to each event, which won’t be revealed until the start of the race.
The Yeovilton team will consist of Corporal’s Tom Brownhill, Paul Davy, Lee Flynn of the Military Provost Guard Service and Sergeant’s Mark West a Royal Marine Aircrewman and David Brown an RAF colleague from 848 Naval Air Squadron, and making up the sixth place Cpl Ashley Wilkinson based out of the Naval College at Dartmouth also from MPGS . Paul Davy, one of the runners is keen to get going. “When I first heard about the Tough Mudder, I knew I had to do it and what better way to do it than with your mates. It’s going to cause a lot of pain, but the charity side of things will make it worth it”.
The benefactors from their efforts will be two charities. A local one to Yeovilton, ' Flying Colours’ (Yeovil Woman’s Hospital), set up to help refurbish and update equipment in Yeovil District Hospital and the National 'Macmillan Cancer Research’ focusing research on improving the quality of life for people affected by cancer and turning the results into practical solutions.
As part of their charity fund-raising, the team took time out to pay a visit to Yeovil Hospital to see where some of the funds they hope to raise will go. Tom Brownhill, the Team leader believes they’re prepared for all the obstacles coming their way and their training will pay off. “This is going to be one of the hardest challenges of my life. Usually I’m quiet accident prone and I’ve broken bones and suffered concussion when playing rugby and football. It was no surprise when I heard the lads were taking bets on me finishing the course, in one piece!”
You can support them by going to the team's just-giving website : Just Giving