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March 17th, 2013 
A former RAF sergeant, Mr Slater is one of six injured British soldiers hoping
to trek to the South Pole as part of a Walking With The Wounded expedition.
In November the team will set out on a 205-mile ski across the coldest place
on earth, fighting against temperatures that can fall to -45C, and in the
teeth of 50mph winds – whilst each a hauling a 130-lb sled behind them.
Furthermore the Britons – a team of four will be chosen from the six
candidates – will be racing to the Pole against a team from the USA and a
team from the Commonwealth, injecting a strong competitive edge to the
event.
“No Norwegian team has ever been beaten in a race to the Pole,” said
Inge Solheim, 39, the Norwegian-born expedition leader, who is guiding the
American team. “And there may not be a Norwegian team in this race, but
there is a Norwegian led-team. So that’s a pretty big hint as to who is
going to win,” he said with a grin.
Besides battling for national glory, the expedition is designed to show
wounded soldiers and civilians that there is life after injury – and to
raise funds for the charity’s year-round support work.
“The expedition is the tip of the iceberg of what we do,” said Ed
Parker, who co-founded the charity in 2010 after his nephew Harry lost both
his legs in Afghanistan. Prince Harry is the charity’s patron, and is likely
to be very involved in the forthcoming expedition.
“The real work of the organisation is helping wounded soldiers live their
lives.
“It’s tragic that so many ex-servicemen and women end up in prison or
homeless, and we are trying to equip them so that when they leave the Forces
they have a purpose in life.”
Last week the three teams, their guides and mentors, the doctor,
communications experts and psychologist were in Iceland for a cold-weather
training session and final selection process. More than 300 people applied
for the expedition, with the final four to be announced this week.
Kate Philp, a below knee leg amputee
Kate Philp is the only female on the UK team, which is sponsored by
Glenfiddich. But the 34-year-old, who in November 2008 became the first
British woman to lose a limb in combat, is modest about her trailblazing
role.
“I’m aware that my being the only girl is interesting to outsiders, but
to me I am just another member of the team,” she said. “When I was
first injured I was put in a ward in Selly Oak hospital with a load of old
ladies, and so I asked to be back with the lads because I had something in
common with them.
“This is something I’d never have had the opportunity to do were it not
for my injury. So it’s actually made my life much richer.”
Major Philp, who is still in the army, studied classics at Oxford before
attending Sandhurst. But talking to The Sunday Telegraph during a
pause from five days training on the Langjokull glacier, she said adventure
is in her blood.
“We are all already ‘broken’, but we don’t want to be treated with kid
gloves. We want to push ourselves, and see what we can achieve. I was
worried about how I’d cope with the weight of the sled, and I warned the
others they might have to help me. But we all came together as a team – and
that’s the beauty of this.”
Her colleague Ibrar Ali, 36, lost his arm while serving with the Yorkshire
Regiment in Afghanistan. So Maj Philp would help him readjust his hood, to
avoid his face becoming exposed to frostbite, in return for him occasionally
taking a greater share of the communal load.
“I think the hardest thing for me has been learning to swallow my pride
and admit that I need to ask for help,” said Captain Ali, who is also
still in the army. Having been awarded the Military Cross for bravery – the
first member of his regiment to do so – he was back in the UK on a selection
course for Walking With The Wounded when two of his colleagues were shot
dead by a rogue Afghan policeman. The trek, he says, is in their memory.
“I don’t like to say ‘we are an inspiration’ as it sounds so arrogant.
But if we can encourage people to get off their sofas and live their lives,
then that is an achievement,” he said.
The journey resonates well beyond the military elite, however.
Guy Disney, who lost his leg in Afghanistan, prepares at camp
Guy Disney, 30, lost his leg in Helmand and was a member of the 2011 North
Pole expedition – the trek which inspired Duncan Slater. He hopes to make
the South Pole team too, well aware of the impact such high-profile
expeditions have.
“I was giving a talk at a school, wearing shorts, and a little boy whose
legs were in callipers came over to talk to me,” he said. “He was
shy but started asking whether I could run, and when I said not really he
beamed and told me he could. He asked if I could jump, and I said no, so he
showed me how he could jump – higher than a soldier. It meant the world to
him.”
Michael Goody, 27, is equally keen to power through perceived barriers. After
14 major surgeries, doctors realised that his left leg could not be saved,
and amputated it below the knee. They told him his ambition of becoming a
paramedic was impossible.
But last year he qualified, becoming the first amputee paramedic in the UK.
“I was carrying an old lady down the stairs to the ambulance, and she
suddenly remembered I only had one leg and started freaking out. But I just
laughed and said ‘I’ve carried plenty of heavier people than you, love,'”
he said. “I’ve always prided myself on doing mad, crazy, epic things
and proving people wrong. This trek is one of them.”
Jason Wilkes, 40, is the only able-bodied member of the team – who have seven
legs between six of them. But the former Royal Engineer, who served all over
the world for 19 years, lives with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD) and sees his role as raising awareness of the mental toll of battle.
“I had to deal with a suicide bombing in Basra in 2006, and I didn’t
realise how much it messed me up. I was having suicidal thoughts and
nightmares, imagining people were following me. I finally asked for help
last year.
“There’s still a huge amount of stigma – people don’t like to walk into a
clinic and think it means they’re ‘mental’. But I hope this shows that you
can get on and live your life – even if that is just getting out of your own
front door or coping with cooking a meal.”
Mr Wilkes has developed his own coping strategies, such as smearing his
clothes with Tiger Balm – the scent takes him back to a happy sporting
childhood in County Durham. His skis are marked with the letters L and J for
his wife Lisa and five-month-old son Jenson.
“One of the biggest issues is making veterans realise it’s normal,
they’re not going mad, and they should seek help,” said Dr Vanessa
Lewis, the team psychotherapist. “The average time for a wounded
serviceman to seek help is 13 years – and that is way too long.”
Supervising the teams’ physical well-being is Dr Daniel Roiz de Sa – a
specialist in extreme environments with the Ministry of Defence. He ensures
that the teams are taking on enough calories – 6,000 a day, in
boil-in-the-bag type rations – and that their bodies are holding up to the
pressure of skiing eight hours a day, for two hour stints with 10-minute
breaks.
The breaks are used to refuel and adjust their clothing – any longer stops
would cause a dangerous drop in body temperature and a stiffening of
muscles.
“Frostbite is one of the major concerns,” he said. “That and
blisters on the stumps, because the skin there is not as tough as skin on
feet. Evacuating off Antarctica would be a huge deal so we want to avoid
that.”
The three teams with their guide and mentor will arrive on the vast continent
from Cape Town, flying in on a Russian-made cargo plane with the doctor, a
communications specialist and their support vehicles. These enormous
four-by-four jeeps will enable the doctor to reach any group in need.
On arrival at Novo Airbase, a Russian facility in Queen Maudland, they will
then transfer to a smaller skiplane, which will land the teams on the
Antarctic Plateau. From there the three groups will, at 60-mile intervals,
set off in their parallel race to the South Pole – a trek expected to take
between 14 and 16 days.
“What’s fascinating is the way the different teams approach this,”
said Ed Parker, the co-founder, who will be skiing with the USA team.
Following the 2011 expedition to the North Pole, last year a group of four
wounded servicemen attempted to climb Everest – almost reaching the summit.
“This is the first time we’ve involved other nations. And there is plenty
of friendly rivalry.”
Blind special forces officer Ivan Castro has come in for plenty of good
natured teasing. One Britain offered to lend him his Union Jack pyjamas,
without warning the deeply-patriotic American that he was donning the rival
flag. Then, at the bingo evening to celebrate the penultimate night of the
Icelandic training, the ebullient captain was designated as chief number
caller.
The 46-year-old has no problem mocking himself, however, joking to the
Icelandic support vehicle drivers that this must be the first time there was
a blind Puerto Rican on their glacier.
“Regardless of our injuries, we all want to show our friends and families
that we’re the same people as before,” he said. He skis with two guide
poles attached to his hips, and his colleagues assist him around the
campsite. “Although that said, when I told my family what I was doing,
knowing how much I hate the cold they said I was freakin’ crazy.”
The three teams on Saturday returned home from Iceland, to await the decision
on selection. The final four who make each team will then embark on
intensive personalised training programmes before setting off in the autumn.
In addition to working in the gym, they will be expected to trek for long
distances carrying heavy backpacks to build up their strength, and to work
on their leg muscles.
Duncan Slater, the double amputee, has already begun dragging tyres along the
beach near his Norfolk home to build up his fitness.
“When I had my accident, my wife Kim was five months pregnant,” he
said.
“The Taliban put 30 kilos of explosive hidden on the road, and when my
Jackal armoured vehicle drove over it someone triggered the explosion. The
whole truck was flipped and I was flung 30 feet in the air, landing with my
legs all bent and twisted. The explosion went right into my legs.
“But a few weeks later, the Taliban did the same only with double the
explosives. It killed two of my mates outright. We lost six men on that
tour.
“The fiancée of one of those who died in that explosion was five months
pregnant, just like Kim. Only the father of her child never came home.
“I got to see the scans, cut the umbilical cord. He never did. I think
about him a lot, actually.
“Being the first double amputee to make it would be a good tribute to him.”
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