Everest soldiers find another peak to climb

Daniel Majid and David Wiseman will be part of a team from Walking with the Wounded who will set it burning on Monday.

They have just returned from an ill-fated Everest expedition organised to raise funds for the charity, which supports work to retrain injured British servicemen and women.

Mr Majid, 27, from Leeds, said: “When I found out we were going to be part of the beacon-lighting team it was a great honour – and it’s going to be a bit easier than climbing to Everest base camp.”

The team was forced to abandon its attempt to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain when unseasonably warm weather sent rocks and ice crashing down, making climbing perilous.

Mr Majid said: “We as a team accepted that danger. This was just the same as the dangers presented on the battlefield, but for every one of us going through these danger zones, we were going to have to call on Sherpas to go too.

“We didn’t feel happy with that situation, to put other people at risk wasn’t right. It was disappointing and quite difficult to swallow, because we’d trained for a year, but we’ve all faced adversity and this is just another thing you have to overcome.”

Mr Majid was hit by shrapnel from an improvised explosive device while on foot patrol with the Territorial Army’s Parachute Regiment in 2010. It shattered the humerus in his right arm and left his wrist paralysed for nine months.

Mr Wiseman, 29, from Tadcaster, was shot in the chest by Taliban fighters while serving with 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment in 2009.

They will light the Snowdon beacon with the rest of their Everest team mates. It is one of four which will be lit at the top of the highest peaks of each of the UK’s nations.

Another 4,000 or more beacons will be lit across the British Isles and the Commonwealth on Monday to celebrate the Queen’s 60-year reign.