Four 60-something ex-servicemen are all set to ride from the UK to Cyprus to raise money for the Armed Forces charity Help for Heroes.

Trevor Burden (60), Alan Sands (61), Fred Ball (66) and Rupert Miller (63) – all from Hampshire and Dorset – will be making the 5000-mile road trip in June. All served in the Royal Hampshire Regiment and have been friends ever since.

“This was about us having the experience of a lifetime,” said Alan Sands. “Sharing it would be a statement of our friendship and a reminder of the camaraderie of when we served as young men. But it has now become more than that. It’s about all the veterans who gave so much for this country. We four have been fortunate in the sense that we have each other, which so many don’t.”

The plan is to ride from Tidworth Camp near Salisbury to Stuttgart, Graz, Sofia, Ankara and Mersin in Turkey before catching the ferry to Cyprus and riding to the Dhekelia Station base – they should be back in Tidworth on 19th June. Help for Heroes supports veterans and families as well as locally embedded civilians and their families.

Jim Freeman, Chair of the BMF, said: “Respect. Help for Heroes is a wonderful idea, and this is a wonderful project, I wish them a fantastic journey. Please support them if you can.”

Written by Peter Henshaw

Top image courtesy of Dave Bowers