africatodayonline.blogspot.com -
AN INTREPID ex-soldier is taking on a towering challenge to raise cash for the charity which supported an army friend after he was maimed by a terrorist bomb.
For the second time in four years 47-year-old former soldier Graeme Barlow, from Leyland, is heading into Africa to tackle the gruelling ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro, which is the continent’s highest peak.
Graeme, who is a director of Barlow Trailers Ltd, intends to raise at least £25,000 for tri-service charity, The Not Forgotten Association, which has aided the recovery of a friend who lost both his legs to a bomb while he was working as a specialist army tracker dog handler in the early 1990s.
He will be taking on the extra responsibility and physical test of acting as a member of the small support team for 10 serving and ex-service men and women when he takes on this challenge.
Graeme said: “The Not Forgotten Association is a fantastic charity which I really first got to know about in 2012 when I met a friend of mine before and during my army days, Darren Swift.
“We served together in the Royal Veterinary Corps’ 39 Brigade army dog unit.
“One day in 1991 Darren was close to a bomb when it exploded. He lost both his legs and another of our mates was killed.”
Graeme is due to jet off in Tanzania, where Kilimanjaro is located, on September 23 and he will begin the six-day ascent to the peak a few days afterwards.