Category Archives: Heroes

Sadly my Gran – known in our family as ‘Nanna’ passed away last week. She was a truly remarkable lady who I was always and remain in great admiration of. I was lucky enough to be able to find the strength to travel to Manchester on two occasions recently to visit her in hospital. I will never forget the joy on her face as I showed her mine and Kady’s wedding photos on my iPad. I will also forever be immensely proud of the spirit she showed in dealing with her own illness in the last few months, not easy for someone of 89.

I will be sure to do her proud by following her example. She was in and out of hospital for quite an extended period of time before she passed away and I am grateful that she is no longer suffering and is at  peace now. Her strength of character, sense of humour and cutting wit continued to the end.

I have no doubt she is  reunited with her beloved husband my Grandad now, I shall miss her dearly but know we will meet again at some point. God Bless her.

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If you’ve never heard of this competition then have a look at this link http://www.toughguy.co.uk/

Now a number of guys I know have very kindly volunteered to put themselves through this hellish experience – which I know of more than one soldier who has been scared off by – in order to raise money for the charity Help for Heroes. Talk about selflessness as none of them are even serving in the Army. This charity does amazing work in helping provide the facilities that assist our wounded soldiers in their recovery.

Anyway, I implore you to have a look at their fund raising page https://www.charitygiver.com/index.php/charity/tg2011 and if you can sponsor them then fantastic. This blog has had over 17,000 hits, even if everyone just gave £1 that would provide a huge amount of assistance to these young men and women in their recovery upon returning from Afghanistan with life changing injuries.

I cannot underline enough just how tough this competition is these guys have volunteered themselves for, this isn’t just some cross-country run, it’s hell on earth! Check out some of the You Tube videos at the charity giver link above, it really is mental, I would not want to be the risk assessor!

Please give generously, this charity really counts.

I’ve known the proprietor Jay since 1996 when we were both soldiers serving together in Germany, I like to think he learnt a lot from me when I used to fix his vehicle for him in my former Army career as an electronics technician. Of course he’s about to deny that in the comments below…  We bumped into each other sporadically over the years as people in the Army do and it was always good to catch up.

When I arrived in my current job in September 2009 Jay was just finishing off his career in the Army. My Regiment does an horrendous competition every year where you have to do a 13 1/2 mile speed march carrying a ridiculous amount of weight as well as a rifle. I found myself plodding around this in my second week in the job in early October 09, thinking my world was coming to an end and wishing I hadn’t just spent 2 years sat behind a desk. Jay was pretty much out of the Army by then and was using his photography skills to capture the pain on everyone’s faces. Of course, he was being sensible and following the marchers on his Mountain Bike. He cycled with me for about my last 2 miles, chatting, catching up, reminiscing about Germany days and managing to distract me sufficiently to get me to the finish line without disgracing myself.

Jay went on to become a professional photographer and I think if you go to his website, you’ll see he’s made a great success of it. As with any kind of professional he’s not just acquired the technical skills to do the job, but he’s got the passion and the ‘eye’ for it:

http://www.redzphotography.com/

When I received my devastating news and Kady and I decided to fast forward our wedding by a year, Jay was one of the first to get in touch, offering his services as a now well established wedding photographer and as a friend not as a business proposition. He rapidly took control advising us and getting the ball rolling to ensure a professional photo package was discussed, planned and subsequently executed. Due to all the medical stuff going on at the time Kady and I were under a severe amount of pressure, Jay was a huge help to us and we really would have been lost without him.

At the wedding he ran things to perfection getting everyone organized, producing hundreds of stunning pictures and making things run smoothly, even still getting amazing results in the midst of the most torrential downpour. Since then he’s been working like a demon putting together a professional book for us.

Not only has he done all that though, but he’s also been advising/teaching/and assisting me in my own rapidly growing interest in photography, the use of cameras and the software to manipulate it all. He’s spent a lot of time helping me learn how to build this website which until 4 weeks ago is something I’d never even attempted. There have been quite a number of times I’ve gotten completely stuck and Jay has come to the rescue.

Passionate  in his photography, professional, incredibly helpful and hard working in everything he does, Kady and I really cannot thank him enough for everything he’s done for us.