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Home | Club News | Tower to Tower - Well Done David!

How would you like to walk from Blackpool Tower to Wainhouse Tower, a distance of some sixty miles in under twenty-four hours?

 Well that is exactly what David Holmes achieved, setting off from Blackpool on Friday night the 26th August and finishing some twenty-three hours later at the foot of Wainhouse Tower. Why, the t-shirt says it all!

David is the father of Jack Holmes who lost both his legs a year ago whilst on mine clearing operations in Afghanistan. He owes his remarkable recovery to the speed at which he was returned to the UK and the care he received at a specialist unit in Birmingham. That unit is called the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM).

Within the unit, a charity was established known as the 'RCDM Patients Welfare Fund'. Monies contributed by those who support our brave service men and women, are used to enhance the patients' stay whilst in treatment and recovery. It provides for some luxuries and improves the quality of life during admission.

So impressed was David as to the facilities at the unit and the remarkable services the charity provided to his son Jack that he decided to do something to raise money to give back to the charity who ably supported his son in those early weeks last Autumn.

Whilst the rest of us might have conducted a charity walk with a few rounds of Ogden Water, this was not challenging enough for David. Not a 'seasoned walker' he decided on the sixty mile Blackpool to Halifax following the old route of years gone by. His goal was to complete it in a time of less than twenty four hours.

He achieved this with just himself and a friend managing to finish the trek as others 'fell by the wayside'. On completion on Saturday evening the 27th August it was off to the Brown Cow Pub at Highroad Well for a few well-earned pints!

The members of the Rotary Club of Halifax along with many others had sponsored David on his walk with substantial monies raised for this invaluable charity.

Ends.

A photograph is attached showing David Horsman, President of the Rotary Club of Halifax congratulating David Holmes.