Express & Star

Servicemen do the hard yards to help the homeless

Four brave servicemen have ran from London to Lichfield to raise money for a homeless veterans charity.

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Four serving and ex-serving armed forces men for the Staffordshire/Mercian Regiment, have run from London to Lichfield. They have slept rough throughout their journey and are raising money/awareness for Homes for Heroes. Adam Hunter, David Downing, Lee Hingley and Justin Grattan

The team are all part of Staffordshire Regiment veterans who support UK Homes 4 Heroes.

As well as running approximately 170 miles, they are also sleeping rough overnight each day to highlight what the homeless veterans are going through.

The team was made up of Dave Dowing, Adam Hunter, Lee Hingley and Justin Grattan who knew each other from their time in the armed forces.

Adam, aged 45 who lives in Cannock, has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is the only one of the four men who is still serving.

He joined the Staffordshire Regiment in 1995 with a 24 year career consisting of 2 tours of Northern Ireland, UN tour of Cyprus, 2 tours of Iraq and a tour of Afghanistan.

Adam said: “Sleeping outside Marylebone was a really petrifying situation. The train station is open until 1am, drunk people walk past and shops shut quite late too so as soon as you’ve settled down you’re moved on quickly, so even for four ex-servicemen in their 40s it was quite intimidating.

“In the countryside, we slept under bridges or at the side of factories which was a lot quieter.

“It makes you think how do people live like that, simple things like where do you get fresh water from? Where do you go to the toilet? It’s so busy in the cities it’s horrendous, it was really eye opening.”

After sleeping rough outside London’s Marylebone Station, the squad’s journey began on Tuesday, December 17.

The men ran from the capital to Staffordshire over three and a half days.

Adam said: “We ran along canal paths through ankle deep mud, the rain didn’t stop one day and it was so heavy it was running off the farmers fields.

"The final day was the most painful because our feet were just smashed so we were slowed down to a walk but we still finished.”

The team have smashed their original target of £3,000 by raising more than £10,000 through donations and sponsorships.