Good luck with this and your court case.

I come from an Army family my grandfather in WW2 lost his leg in El Alamein , my uncle was killed in the early 70's in an explosion that destroyed his land rover, my father also served for a number of years in R.Sigs. I fully endorse and support anything to do with our Armed forces and the great job they do in very difficult conditions with quite dubious support.

Look forward to supporting this cause. Best of luck!!!!

I assume you will be passing through or close to Worcester so I will be more than willing to help out with support, B@B if you need it and some company on the ride. Let us know the route, dates etc asp. I am an ex-serviceman so glad to offer any help we can.

Names?
Madasacarrott?

captainfruitloop?

threepipsLEJOG?

960lejog

Sorry for the OT, but do you live near Bognor, Muddypuddle?

Thanks for all the offers of support. I may have to add a few miles to ensure I can visit you all.

Right then, I'm on my way.

Justgiving page: http://www.justgiving.com/CaptainDanSoloLEJOG

Dates: 17-21 June 2010

Route: Just being tweaked for publication

Publicity: Appointments with BBC, the Sun, NOTW – more to follow.

Please dig deep!!! 🙂

first donation, good luck

Thanks, I'm very grateful. Please pass on the link to those you know who may be feeling generous.

Hmm, Muddypuddle….

Shall I do the lap on the road bike I was planning to use for LEJOG, use my Trance X2 for the LEJOG to improve my lap at MM, or just carry one bike as a spare?

Seriously though, d'you think someone would lend me a bike for the lap if I turn up?

Just coughed a pony. And will also put the word out. And well done on the PR front.

Loan bike at Mayhem, no problemo. Just remind me closer to the time.

Muddypuddle. re Bognor, weirdly had a recent ebay transaction with some one in the vicinity with the same moniker.

Seriously though, d'you think someone would lend me a bike for the lap if I turn up?

I think the problem will be too many offers, not too few! 😀

Right, I'll post that at work tomorrow and give it a plug in the new year to give it a boost 🙂

When are you looking at running from Cheltenham?…and are you local to there?

SSP

Combat Stress is a charity formed in 1919 looking after war veterans, with 3 hospitals around the UK

A suggestion – Plan your route around visiting their 3 main centres – or more, just looked at their site – looks like they have a lot of regional centres you could hit as well, if the mood took you…. maximising publicity? 😉
O'course, i'm not suggesting that would be within your current 3 day plan 😉

In the meantime, i'll drop in a donation and keep on eye out for the route / date, will assist where possible.
Regards & chapeau
Chris

Thanks all again – a quick update.

The Cheltenham/London walk is being organised by my brother. He's an ex medic with KORBR and lives in Cheltenham. We're doing it mid-May with a bunch of medics/police from the Cheltenham and Gloucester area and I'm just tagging along for the fun of it. This is the first route we are planning, and I may check it out on the Trance first. He's aiming for £21k (10 ex-soldiers staying for a week each).

The LEJOG is mine, solo, because I want nice long stretches of ride for my own time to reflect. I've so many people wanting to join me for legs, that I'm sure my mood will be great (think of the coast to coast run in Forrest Gump, but without the cool bumper sticker sloguns). I'm also looking to support 10 ex-soldiers. The route will be the next one planned after the walk is set.

Anyway, gotta go as I'm in the dock at 10:00am tomorrow morning and need to polish my shoes. Will update in the afternoon.

Hi,

A mate of mine is a long distance cyclist and has done Lands End to JOG and Race Across America a couple of times 9think he also holds the world record for the longest distance cycled on an indoor bike in a day)!

He's also a mentor/coach and would certainly be happy to share his experiences with you if that helps. Not sure if you can private message me on this forum but if you'd like to chat with him let me know and I'll get you his email address.

If you end up coming through Edinburgh then consider yourself more than welcome – if we can help then we will.

You sound like a top guy. :salutes:

I had the first stage in the Magistrates Court today. Sent straight to the Crown Court, but at least we got the prosecution evidence pack today. The prosecution pack was virtually a case for the defence, as the 10 police statements, helicopter video and control room transcript all appear to be well in my favour. The solicitor described the prosecution case as a "croc of sh1t" and a waste of everyones' time.

I've got the pre-trial hearing at Cardiff Crown Court at 09:00 on 29th December, but it should then be adjourned until mid-January. The prosecution informally suggested to my solicitor that if we could get additional evidence that my trial is prolonging my wait for treatment, he could possibly make the case go away 🙂 The mental health team are putting a letter in the post tonight to this effect.

I now have legal aid and work are giving me paid compassionate leave for the trial, despite this being well outside the terms of my contract. Very supportive employer!!!

I have also had the trustees of Sir Tasker Watkins's estate approach me yesterday. They have a fund set up to help ex-soldiers with connections in Glamorgan and Monmouthshire and have offered to pay for a holiday for me and my family once the court case is over. I've gratefully suggested that there may be a few more like me with more needy situations, but we agreed that I'll accept if they can't find anyone else who needs it more.

I had numerous messages and cards of support, which brought me to tears last night. I'm starting to feel in a far better place now and am keen to get this phase over with and get on with my life. I've got a bit of time off now, so will be training hard for the run and the ride – will have to approach the food and drink of Christmas with moderation!

Will update on progress as it happens. Merry Christmas all.

Good news, thanks for the update and have a good Christmas

yeah. have a good christmas, hope all goes well with this.
donation made and good luck with the ride

Thanks adey, awesome!

Good luck mate.
I left shortly before it all kicked off (on resettlement instead of op Jacana) but went to some other "interesting" places. Some of my old colleagues have suffered with PTSD from NI etc.
A very worthy cause but I think you should do it on a 40lb downhiller!

I'm contemplating riding to and from the start/finish from Cardiff (save the train fare), taking the full suss (for a lap of MM as suggested earlier) and towing the bike trailer to carry a big bucket for collecting coins along the way and beer for the finish line.

Quick update – Crown Court trial starts tomorrow at 14:00 at Cardiff Crown Court (pre-trial hearing only). Am psyching myself up and only need to polish my shoes and medals before I'm ready.

Good luck in court mate hope all go's well!I'am sure you can get some publicity off the back off your court case (every cloud has a silver lining)and the sun newspaper have just done an awards night for guys like you!I have family and mate's who are serving and ex serving and have been thinking about doing the offroad LEGOG version for help for heroe's org.I'am thinking of doing it Great Divide race style,100+ miles a day and bivvying.My fitness is not up to scratch so will be training and gettin some bivvy rides in in the summer ready for a pop at it next year!

Hmmmm. HM Courts are creaking at the seams methinks.

Just phoned to check I'm listed for today. Apparently not. The paperwork hasn't arrived by post yet.

Paperwork? Post? FFS, what is wrong with online and email. No wonder the whole organisation is so backwards. Looks like I'll be in during the first/second week of January now.

Right then, I've got a day for training, so a full day run is in order.

Forgot to add, my Mum has offered to help with the fundraising by writing to loads of companies and organisations to get them to dig deep. She is retired and disabled and anything involving writing or typing is very tiring and difficult for her, so this is a really nice offer.

Hi Dan

I just got paid today so I've made a donation to your Justgiving page. I hope you win your battle in court & succeed in your fund raising ventures.

Good luck with both mate.

I was about to about to buy junk from sales but chucking a tenner your way and I'm a skint student so no excuses for anyone on the forum!

Stop buying crap people and donate please!

(All the best Dan)

bump and good luck. in my experience courts never run on time and are swamped. And I've been to more than one initial hearing where no one has seen any paperwork (the investigators get beasted to get the papers submitted in good time so the CPS or the police force file handlers can lose it for months…).

Pre-trial hearing was a farce. The judge got pi55ed off with the CPS, saying that if he had the power, he may have been tempted to throw the case out and that they may wish to go away and re-think whether they want to prosecute or not.

Adjourned until 15th Feb!

Time to get out on the bike and train.

I've been discussing nutrition with my brother.

What is the best, simple, lightweight diet for 3-5 days on the bike?

I did a quick Cardiff-London last year and lived off banana, cereal bars, flapjacks and snickers. That was fine for 16 hours, but what about longer?

We are tempted to add lots of eggs and beans to the list above. Bro has his own free-range chickens, so no shortage of the freshest, most awesome eggs in the UK.

How's this going Dan?

Contacted any mags etc?

Best of luck!

good luck for Monday, keep us posted with the court case. Is it for pleas etc (PCMH)??

How is the training going too? a bit flipping cold in this weather me thinks!

Sorry I've gone a bit quiet lately.

Trial preparation is going well. The PCMH due for Monday has been delayed until Wednesday, as the CPS prosecutor allocated to the case has referred it up to the chief prosecutor in Wales. It is his view the case should be dropped.

We received the last bit of evidence that the CPS intended not to use – the DVD of the helicopter camera. The content is very supportive of our defence. This will be added to the 10 police statements, the 3 psychiatric reports all in my favour. Not seen anything supportive of the CPS case yet.

In fact, the CPS wrote to my legal team stating that the main reason that they are pushing the case is to allow the option of the court enforcing my medical treatment. This is actually delaying the start of my treatment with Combat Stress and also the War Veterans Service at UHW and I have been voluntarily attending all treatment anyway.

I've even had unofficial contact from the police team who arrested me – all very supportive and representative of their professional and sympathetic treatment of me on the day in June 2009.

Training is going well – I've been out on the bike a lot, particularly an old, heavy steel mountain bike with bike trailer attached. Riding that everywhere on the road was great preparation for my Cardiff-London ride last year, as my road bike felt weightless after that. Plenty of running and boxing too, so should be well in shape by the summer.

I haven't publicised too much yet, as I want to get the trial out of the way first. Will push all the corporate stuff closer to the time.

Great stuff and good luck for the week ahead.

Good idea about training with a heavy load to make it easier for the big day.

😀

Good luck at Court Dan.

So how did the PCMH go? fingers crossed.

as above

Not well. The one charge got dropped, but replaced with two new ones – Affray and Firearm possession in a public place without reasonable or lawful excuse.

The Affray is easy – no violence, no threats = not affray.

The possession without reasonable excuse will be countered by my legal team, who are calling two consultant psychiatrists as expert witnesses to my mental state on the night, i.e. not capable of making a reasonable decision.

Trial continues 27th April at Newport Crown Court.