Veterans Coastal Retreats

**Two spaces available tomorrow**

Due to a cancellation, we have two fully-funded spaces available on our watersports session with Loe Beach Watersports tomorrow from 1000 - 1300. A great opportunity to get out on the water, have some fun and meet new people. Email [email protected] to book.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1382698095703803

‘The sky is not the limit; it’s just the beginning.’

We wanted to say a massive thank you to for fundraising for Vererans Coastal Retreats and smashing her skydive!

These photos look amazing! Such a brave thing to do for the charity. And her fundraising went over her goal which is never an easy thing to do.

We appreciate it so much, fundraising like this helps us to get closer to our goals, thank you!

The Christmas Truce has become one of the most famous and mythologised events of the First World War. Christmas is a time to bring everyone together no matter the

Late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches. Messages began to be shouted between the trenches.

The following day, British and German soldiers met in no man’s land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football. They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts. After Boxing Day, meetings in no man’s land dwindled out.

At Veterans Coastal Retreats. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a massive thank you to everyone that has supported us so far.

Some of the trustees working hard on the paperwork to move into …big things are coming, keep your ear to the ground!

This time last week Al Lawler sacrificed all of his hair in order to raise money for and rising over £1400. He served many years in the 1st BN Coldstream Guards and is very supportive of anyone that needs help especially ex-forces. thank you for your outstanding efforts.

Congratulations and massive thanks to the team for completing the 100km Trailwalker at the weekend and raising over £2000.00 for VCR.
Link to donate if you haven’t had a chance to already 👉🏼 https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/stretcher-bearers

The next fundraising effort is something a little different, no running involved…stay tuned…
If you’d like to raise funds for us please do get in touch, either here or with Richard

The next fundraising effort is something a little different, no running involved…stay tuned…

29 days later and 1050 miles he made it to Lands End last night.
What an accomplishment, huge congratulations!

If you haven’t already please do consider sticking what you can in the kitty; https://www.gofundme.com/f/raising-money-for-veterans-coastal-retreats

Full write up to follow in a few weeks ✍️

Day 28
This is it, the final push.

80 something miles to go.

It was great to see Richard still smiling, still laughing, still standing and amazingly, still running.

It’s wet & wild down in Cornwall this weekend with some rugged coastline and nasty hills to pass.

Who’s coming down to Land’s End to see him to the end? 👋🏼

And if you haven’t already donated please consider parting with a few pennies here; https://www.gofundme.com/f/raising-money-for-veterans-coastal-retreats

Please continue to like, share, comment and DONATE! Let’s get this to £5000.00 before he gets to the finish.

Day 24
T W E N T Y F O U R - ouch, this has got to be hurting now but still heading in the right direction…just about.
He’ll be home this week and this epic, gruelling, punishing, exhausting run will be done.
Looking forward for a full write up of the experience. Last week he casually said ‘it’s quite a good way to see the country…’ - probably the best way, and a way that not many people have done.
As ever, thank you for sharing, liking, commenting and donating - keep it up, https://www.gofundme.com/f/raising-money-for-veterans-coastal-retreats

Into the 4th week and 287 miles to go.
I’m exhausted thinking about running 1000 miles so one can only imagine how Richard is feeling now. No doubt, chipper as ever!
Cornwall and home is on the horizon - a few more days until he’s on familiar ground.
Whose planning on running along the coast with him?

Congrats to Sam for smashing his fundraising target! Today and tomorrow he’s tackling the 100 miles of The South Downs Way in aid of Veterans Coastal Retreats.

You can follow his progress here; https://gar.mn/4oQEnA

And donate here; https://gofund.me/f81bfdd4

Day 14
Richard is nearly half way already and ahead of schedule.
The plan for today is tackling the majority of Yorkshire Dales National Park, more tricky terrain. I’d say keep an eye on the tracker but it’s patchy at best, instead why not keep an eye on the fundraising 🙏🏼
Let’s see if we can get to £3K this beautiful bank holiday weekend;

https://www.gofundme.com/f/raising-money-for-veterans-coastal-retreats

Into week two of John o’Groats to Lands End.

Gruelling, tough, hard, punishing, demanding. Richard may have chosen the hardest route back home.

We had a catch up this morning at 0500 - he was packing his kit up, I was feeding the baby.

I asked, why do you love running so much? His quick response was, to get away from you.

Charming as ever…

Health, fitness, mental health, headspace and a thousand more reasons he said.

For me, it’s water, swimming, paddling, floating in a rubber ring, being on, in or near water brings me that peace.

Different things work for different people. We create our own sanctuaries and our mission at VCR is to create a sanctuary in Cornwall.

A safe place veterans can use for a bit of R ‘n R , a place to take their families and enjoy together or take themselves to regroup and take some time to get away from it all.

Our aim is to be welcoming guests by 2024 but we won’t get there without your help.

Please continue to like, share and donate - everyday we are humbled by your generosity and support, thank you.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/raising-money-for-veterans-coastal-retreats

Big thanks to Ben for transporting Richard to the start today and bringing along his snazzy yellow trail running shoes.

It’s a big one today, the Cairngorms National Park, the UKs largest national park, is a tricky section of the route, it’s going to be a tough, long old day for Richard.

No doubt the tracker will play up as the signal is going to be sketchy at best but link below if you want to follow progress.

https://live.opentracking.co.uk/jogglerp22

Day 4 and Richard has run through Inverness and is on his way to Aviemore.
Now there’s a couple of days under his feet it’s time to focus and push on. No time for social media now so I’m fully back in the driving seat, Clare here 👋🏼

Please continue to like, share & comment, spreading the word is just as good as a donation, we really appreciate all the supporters of this challenge and VCR.

I’ll do my best to update on a daily basis but all depends on how much Richard sends through to me and I’m not chasing him, more important things to do, particularly in the next few days when he has a very technical and hilly national park to navigate. Keep an eye on the tracker, frustratingly it’s not the best this time round and the signal keeps dropping but he usually has it fixed by the end of the day.

https://live.opentracking.co.uk/jogglerp22/

Thank you, once again, from all of us at VCR for your continued support and messages of encouragement.

Day 3.
The tracker’s been playing up a bit but we’re sure he’s headed in the right direction…
Richard will be potentially running through some pretty hairy weather in the next few days with amber weather warnings issued.
Please continue to like & share and get the word out about Veterans Coastal Retreats and Richard’s run.

And remember, if you have any spare change we’ll gladly take it off your hands 👇🏼

https://www.gofundme.com/f/raising-money-for-veterans-coastal-retreats

he’s off again….
Richard will be arriving in John o Groats at some point this weekend to start the run down to Lands End.

He’s on his own this time round, no support crew, no campervans, no physios just friends at the end of the phone.

Richard first mentioned this run to me (Clare here, hi 👋🏼 ) in 2019, I’m sure he’d been thinking about it before then too.

It’s time to get this done now, it’s only 1000 miles with too much kit to carry in a heatwave…what could possibly go wrong?

He’s got a tracker so we can follow his progress, if you want to run with him just find him via the tracker, his phone will be off a lot to save battery life. If you don’t want to run maybe take him some food or drive the rediculously heavy day sack to the next pit stop to save his back from fully breaking.

https://live.opentracking.co.uk/jogglerp22/

If you don’t know why he’s doing this have a look at his fundraising page or the VCR website.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/raising-money-for-veterans-coastal-retreats

Let’s get him to the finish.

I’m not sure who wrote this, the internet credits it to various people but I always say this before any of his runs;

May your wind be always rhythmic.
May your heart be always strong.
May your road be always beautiful.
May it never seem too long.

May your legs be always faithful.
May your feet be never sore.
May your mind be always peaceful.
May you run forevermore.

It’s been a summer to remember so far and still so much coming up. Big thanks to Chris, Tom & Ollie who have raised so much for Veterans Coastal Retreats.

https://www.veteranscoastalretreats.com/news/summer-of-fundrasing

Summer of Fun…draising — Veterans Coastal Retreats It’s been a busy one! We’ve been absolutely blown away by all the people coming forward to fundraise for Veterans Coastal Retreats. Chris started us off on the 18th June with The Wall a 70 mile ultra marathon from Carlisle Castle to Millennium Bridge Gateshead raising a whopping £1775 so far.

Huge congrats to Tom for completing the Indian Queens half marathon yesterday in just over 2hrs wearing body armour in the sweltering heat.
£1450.00 raised - awesome effort, thank you. We’ll get to our target in no time!

Looking forward to seeing Tom make light work of this half marathon today 🏃‍♂️

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/thomas-luscombe-2?fs=e&s=cl

Help raise £500 to Veterans coastal retreats Weʼre raising money to Veterans coastal retreats. Support this JustGiving Crowdfunding Page.

Massive congrats to Ollie for absolutely smashing his first ultra marathon and fundraising target for VCR.
Can we get him to £1K before the weekend is out? Link to donate below.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/im-raising-250300-for-veterans-coastal-retreat?qid=4eafc54a7cf3751c689f61b3b7815818

In less than 24hrs Tom managed to raise over £500 so the target has been upped to £1000. What do you get for that extra £500 we hear you ask? Well, Tom has decided to run in body armour. Nulli Secundus

Help raise £500 to Veterans coastal retreats Weʼre raising money to Veterans coastal retreats. Support this JustGiving Crowdfunding Page.

Fellow Cornishman and ex Coldstream Guardsman Tom is running the Indian Queens half marathon next month in aid of Veterans Coastal Retreats.
Best of luck to Tom who is more at home in/on the water than running - in a previous life he was the army surfing champion 🏄‍♂️ !
More details in the link below, every little helps

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/thomas-luscombe-2

Help raise £500 to Veterans coastal retreats Weʼre raising money to Veterans coastal retreats. Support this JustGiving Crowdfunding Page.

Help raise £5000 to Raise funds for Veterans Coastal Retreats to purchase a coastal property in Cornwall to support Veterans and their families. Weʼre raising money to Raise funds for Veterans Coastal Retreats to purchase a coastal property in Cornwall to support Veterans and their families.. Support this JustGiving Crowdfunding Page.

Best of luck to Chris Graham who is running The Wall today. A 70 mile ultra marathon along Hadrian’s Wall. He’s so far raised over £1000.00 for Veterans Coastal Retreats, now for that final push; https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/chrisgrahamvcr - if you’ve got a spare £ or two we’ll happily take it off your hands 🙌🏻
Live tracking available here; http://ratracetracking.co.uk/RunnerLiveMap.aspx?EventID=1212&RunnerID=64645 🏃‍♂️

Congratulations to Tim Branchett and team who finished the Salisbury Plain Marathon in 6hrs and 45mins yesterday. The hills and the heat were brutal, not to mention carrying the 30kg stretcher with mannequin. The team are slowly upping the miles in time for Trailwalker in September - looking forward to seeing the team in The South Downs soon!
Hope the recovery is going well 💪🏼

Best of luck today to Tim Branchett and the team who are taking part in the Salisbury Plain Marathon. It’s the first time the team, who will be doing Trailwalker in September to raise funds for , are racing together. They will be carrying the 30kg stretcher the entire course and plan to get the route completed in 6hrs.

A massive well done to Paul and his team for smashing the Banff to Jasper race in Canada last weekend and coming away with a 1st place for the team. Outstanding effort 💪