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Dave, 49, joined the Army and served with the Royal Logistic Corps as a Warrant Officer 1, serving in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. He ruptured his spine in 2001 in a sporting accident, he has additionally had to have both of his rotator cuffs rebuilt. Dave left the Army in February 2014 initially struggled to adapt back to civilian life: “The Army was my family, I served for 23 years and 92 days, when it was ‘taken away’ it was like a death in the family with all the associated mental and physical distress to go through. Sadly, a lot of blokes don’t get through it.”

“Sport is an escape, you drop into your own special place. It gives you that feeling of belonging. It gives me great resolve and great satisfaction”.

He joined Help for Heroes’ Sports Recovery programme having been a keen sportsman all his life: “I was born on a bike and wanted to be a professional cyclist but I also wanted to be a Commando so I joined the Army and completed the All Arms Commando Course in 1985”.

Dave was the BA(G) Triathlon Secretary whilst serving in Germany and has completed all distances of triathlon. Now going on to be part of the Arch to Arc team is a testament as to how far he’s come in the last year and a half: “Sport is an escape, you drop into your own special place. It gives you that feeling of belonging. It gives me great resolve and great satisfaction”.