Fareham Royal Navy veterans to hike 50 miles to Shaftesbury in aid of

Denzel Wilson, Roy Smith, Ian Wilson and Ian Whitefoot - who met while serving in the Royal Navy - will trek from Fareham to Berwick St John, Shaftesbury across two days starting on Thursday, August 24. The team - who have a collective 111 years of Naval service under their belts - are hoping to raise £2,500 for the SSAFA and are already well on the way to reaching their goal. The four “close-knit” friends all live within quarter of a mile of each other in Fareham.

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Speaking ahead of the gruelling undertaking, Roy Smith said: “You make friends for life when you’re in the services. We’ve been practising since November - you can’t just put a pair of trainers on and walk fifty-odd miles.

“We have done this sort of thing before in the services. Most Sundays, we probably do 15 to 20 miles on average and we have done since November.”

On arrival at the Wiltshire village, the group will be joined by volunteer musicians from the Corps of Drums who will accompany them to “Fun in the field” – an annual fundraiser and social event for ex-servicemen. They aim to arrive at around 5.00pm on Saturday, August 26 and join in the festivities while sharing stories with other veterans.

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Roy, who now works in Portsmouth Dockyard looking after historic ships like HMS Victory and HMS Warrior, said he is hoping for some cool weather during the walk.

He added: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. We’re hoping it’s not too hot because you can only take so many clothes off when you’re walking along public highways. We’ll have camel backs and nutrition bars and we’ll stop at watering holes along the way - but it’s not a pub crawl.”

SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, has been providing lifelong support to members of the armed forces and their families since 1885. You can donate to the group’s “bimble fundraiser” via their JustGiving page and find out more about the challenge here.