AN INTREPID trailer firm boss is taking on a towering challenge to raise cash for the charity which supported an army friend after he was maimed by a terrorist bomb.

For the second time in four years 47-year-old former soldier Graeme Barlow, who is a director of Barlow Trailers Ltd, the main Lancashire distributor for Ifor Williams Trailers, is heading into Africa to tackle the gruelling ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro, the continent’s highest peak.

His target is to raise at least £25,000 for tri-service charity, The Not Forgotten Association, which has aided the recovery of a friend who lost both his legs to a bomb while he was working as a specialist army tracker dog handler in the early 1990s.

The Not Forgotten Association was formed in 1920 for the "comfort, cheer and entertainment" of the wounded from World War One.

Over the years it has adapted to meet changing needs and today has the same aims for the welfare of serving wounded and the ex-service community with disabilities, supporting about 10,000 men and women each year.

Last time Graeme took on the Kilimanjaro summit challenge back in 2011, raising £20,000 for two good causes, he had only himself to think about as he battled to the 19,335 foot (5,895 metres) summit of the mountain.

But this time he will be taking on the extra responsibility and physical test of acting as a member of the small support team for 10 serving and ex-service men and women – including a number of amputees and others with brain or sight injuries – who are making the attempt.

Graeme said: "The Not Forgotten Association is a fantastic charity which I really first got to know about in 2012 when I went along to a Buckingham Palace garden party for its members with a friend of mine but before and during my army days, Darren Swift.

"We served together in the Royal Veterinary Corps’ 39 Brigade army dog unit.

"One day in 1991 Darren was close to a bomb when it exploded. He lost both his legs and another of our mates was killed.

"The charity has done an extraordinary job of getting him out and about and generally helped him to cope. It has also done the same for so many other injured serving and ex-service people, not just those hurt in Iraq and Afghanistan but going right back to the Falklands and beyond.

"That’s why I’ve decided to raise as much money as I can for this great cause by doing the challenge again."

Graeme is due to jet off in Tanzania, where Kilimanjaro is located, on September 23 and begin the six-day ascent to the peak a few days afterwards.

The trek to the summit will present a serious physical challenge of fitness and endurance, as well as mental strength – even for the able bodied.

The group will climb 3,455 metres and cover a distance of 25 kilometres, on the way experiencing five climate zones and temperatures ranging from 30C+ to sub-zero.

In the assault party will be single and double amputees, others who have sustained brain, sight and other injuries, as well as those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems.

Many of the group have only recently sustained their injuries.

Although those taking part will have recovered sufficiently from their traumatic experiences to be able to undertake the challenge, the association has said it wouldn’t be able to run the event without the back-up they will receive from the support team.

Graeme, who served as a dog trainer with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps until leaving the army 22 years ago and joining the family trailer business, said: "There will be four of us in the support team, all of whom are ex-forces like myself.

"We’ll be required to provide actual physical help for the 10 members of the group from time to time as well as offering them encouragement when they are experiencing difficulties.

"Last time I did the Kilimanjaro challenge it was four years ago when I managed to raise quite a bit of cash for two good causes close to my heart, the ex-forces charity Help for Heroes and the Rosemere Cancer Centre in Preston which gave some fantastic care to my late father-in-law, Colin Green, who died of cancer in 2008.

"I knew it wasn’t going to be easy but I didn’t realise it was going to be as difficult as it was.

"At the bottom of the mountain, it’s 100-plus degrees as you’d expect in Africa and then you go through the forest which is hot and sticky.

"After that you have to trek over volcanic rock and on that occasion we ran into high winds and blizzards – you experience every kind of weather you can imagine.

"The first two days were hard but the last two were just horrible. This time when I do it I’ll know all that but it’s not going to make it any easier."

Graeme added: "It’s now over 20 years since I came out of the army and I’m obviously not in peak condition but since January I’ve been training for the challenge by getting up at 6am every morning and running three miles.

"The next stage is to start some hill walking and then in June I’ll be joining the other support team members for a week of hill climbing.

"Although they’re also ex-forces like me, I don’t know them, so it will also be a chance for us all to get together and see how we get on.

"I know tackling Kilimanjaro isn’t going to be easy but I’m doing my best to get fit for it and looking forward to what I know will be a really tough challenge."

Established in 1970, Barlow Trailers is the main Lancashire distributor of Ifor Williams Trailers, which are the most popular trailers in the UK.

Barlows a sales stock of over 200 trailers and a massive trailer spares department.

Peter Nesbitt, the Business Development Manager of Ifor Williams Trailers, said: "I take my hat off to Graeme. Climbing Kilimanjaro is a huge challenge and we would like to wish him the very best."

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Related Links:

To support Graeme’s Kilimanjaro challenge, visit his charity page at http://www.justgiving.com/owner-email/pleasesponsor/Graeme-Barlow

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News » Trailer boss Graeme takes on towering test to help charity for injured veterans