Co-Founder and CEO of the military charity Walking With The Wounded Ed Parker, together with Duncan Slater, a double leg amputee war veteran will this weekend be sleeping under hedges and in barns, with no money for food as they walk 119 miles over four days from London to Norfolk, in support of homeless and other vulnerable veterans.

The two veterans start at 8am this Friday (9th December) at Walking With The Wounded’s London office at the Royal Hospital Chelsea and will walk to the charity’s Head Office in North Norfolk, arriving on the late afternoon of 12th December.

With no money for food, they are really hoping members of the public will come out and support them along the route and might even give them a sandwich to keep their energy levels up over the four days.

Dedicating his life to the R.A.F. for over a decade, Duncan was parachute qualified and worked mainly with airborne units. In July 2009 whilst serving in Afghanistan in an area called Babaji during operation ‘Panthers Claw’, an Improvised Explosive Device (I.E.D.) blew up Duncan’s vehicle. The only unbroken part of his body was his right arm. After 12 months of rehab it became clear that both legs must be amputated in order for Duncan to be able to walk pain free.

Duncan Slater commented: “You might ask why on earth Ed and I are doing this. It is simply because we both want to do something meaningful to support Walking Home For Christmas, WWTW’s Christmas campaign, and to help the charity raise awareness of what we do. We provide support for a lot of veterans who have been homeless but we have no actual idea of the challenges they face, so we thought this might be an opportunity to try and experience what it must be like for them. We are both under no illusion. This is very minor to what those who are homeless face, but we hope we will understand more about the hardship they deal with every day by the end of our walk.”

He added: “As a double leg amputee War Veteran people expect me to say I am dreading the pain from the miles covered each day (approx. 33 miles) but in fact I am dreading missing my wife and little girl, I love bedtimes with my daughter so will miss that, but it’s a small price to pay for raising awareness of homeless and other vulnerable veterans. I really hope by what we are doing members of the public will think twice about our veterans that unfortunately fall between the cracks in life and end up living rough.”

Co-Founder and CEO of Walking With The Wounded, Ed Parker, commented: “We both want to do something to support Walking Home For Christmas, WWTW’s Christmas campaign, and help the charity raise awareness of what we do. We do provide support to a lot of veterans who have been homeless, and we have no idea of the challenges they face, so we thought this might be an opportunity to try and experience what it must be like for them. We are both under no illusion this is very minor to what those who are homeless face, but we hope we will understand more about the hardship they face at the end of our walk.”

Four Ways to Support Ed and Duncan:

Sponsor Duncan and Ed for £10.00 here: http://bit.ly/2gphS7T

Sign up yourself for Walking Home For Christmas and do your own walk. (It can be as short or as long as you want) SIGN UP HERE http://bit.ly/1Lhz312 It only costs £10.00.

Support them on the route by coming out to fundraise or just to cheer them on. Friendly smiling faces will be a real boost. Here’s the route: https://goo.gl/maps/sPhbmzvpdoH2

Let local towns and villages know Ed and Duncan are coming.