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Wall Walk to aid Guards' children
A CHARITY set up in memory of a Yorkshire Coldstream Guard killed in Iraq is hoping to raise £20,000 to help the children of needy serving and former Guardsmen.
Twenty supporters of Coldstream Kids, set up following the deaths of two Guardsmen, including Sergeant Christian Hickey, from East Bierley in Bradford, will set off on Thursday to walk the length of Hadrian's Wall.
Former Guardsman Franco Gasparotti, 42, has organised the walk but a spinal injury will prevent him from walking more than a few miles of the 84-mile route. He suffered the injury when he was attacked during a riot in Belfast in 1989. His injuries meant he had to retire from the Army and is on a war pension.
Mr Gasparotti, originally from Thornbury in Bradford, spent two years in rehabilitation, learned to walk again and now runs a business offering personalised fitness training.
Based in Epsom, Surrey, he works to improve the fitness of clients and draws on his Army experience when he was a keen boxer, runner, swimmer and footballer.
Setting up the charity and org-anising the walk was his way of "putting something back", he says.
"The incident in Belfast ended my career and I spent two years in rehabilitation. Two vertebrae in my back were crushed and this triggered rheumatic disease of the spine.
"I felt forgotten about when I came out of rehabilitation and it was a big wrench. I missed out on a career that I really enjoyed.
"The Ministry of Defence and the way it works didn't do enough for me. I am still being treated for post traumatic stress disorder and am a 50 per cent disabled war pensioner. I wanted to try and put something back.
"I am co-ordinating the walk and will do elements of it but I can't do it all because of the disability."
The 20 walkers are all serving or former Coldstream Guards, and several are disabled or being treated for post traumatic stress disorder.
Among those walking are ex-Guardsman Simon Ward, from Leeds, who now works as a courier driver, and Ted Williams, a former sergeant in the Guards who is from Wakefield.
Each of the walkers has agreed to raise 800 and all the money will go to children of Coldstreamers who fall on hard times, become ill or are killed in action or other circumstances.
The walkers aim to cover about 20 miles a day over five days and have been backed in their efforts by Pauline Hickey, Christian's mother, who is a patron of the charity.
Sgt Hickey was 30 when he was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra two years ago. He had been married to Gemma for two years and died just days before he was due to return home.
Coldstream Kids charity was set up in their memory and helped raise thousands of pounds for the children of Guardsman Anthony Wakefield, 24, from Newcastle, who was killed in Iraq in 2005.
A website, www.coldstreamkids.co.uk, is currently being put together to provide regular updates on fundraising events.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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