Get involved CYCLISTS from Middlesbrough College will join serving and ex-soldiers on the challenge of a lifetime to help severely injured army comrades.
The time for training has almost ended and the hard work is about to begin, as the Riding For The Troops team of 12 embark on their Land’s End to John O Groats challenge on Saturday. Teesside athletes, on the gruelling 1,000 mile bike ride, are making the journey to raise funds for brave soldiers coping with horrific injuries in the aftermath of war through the charity BLESMA. Garry Smith and Tony Gilbert, the college’s uniformed services tutors, are among those taking part in the seven-day event, along with five colleagues. Garry, who is also due to go to Afghanistan with the Green Howards in September, travelled to Blackpool with the rest of the cyclists to meet limbless comrades of all ages in a BLESMA centre. Garry said: “We were speaking to some of the patients down there and the staff about the difficulties with funding.
“I’m going out to Afghanistan with the Fourth Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment in September and I also have a son in the Royal Engineers who has been told he’ll be going there.