Oxted lads march military style from London to Brighton for SSAFA

20 October 2022

Starting on the 22 October, a team of six childhood friends will march for twenty four hours, carrying the military standard 15kg backpack to raise funds for SSAFA. The start point is Admiralty Arch in London, ending at Brighton Pier. No stopping, apart from the necessary, and no wimping out!

Team leader, Joseph McPherson (25) left the army after receiving Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) from the army mental health team to treat his PTSD. He now wants to give something back to the charity which helps support service leavers. His teammates and long-term friends helped him through that difficult period and now want to join in to help him raise money too.

Joseph said: "I am fine now, but that is thanks to the excellent help I received. I want other people to be able to be fine too, that’s why I chose to support SSAFA.”

Joseph now runs a cyber security recruitment company, Empiris, specialising in ex-forces personnel moving into IT, Cyber and Information Security.

The team, Travis Tarrant, Joseph Burgess, Matthew Morris, Henry Henderson, Daniel Woodcock and Joseph, have been practicing walking on weekends together in preparation for the march, and will set off from Admiralty Arch in London at 6pm and aim to be at Brighton Pier by 6pm the following day. They have friends and family at waypoints to check their progress and provide much needed meals (the men will need around 8000 calories extra to do the march).

The lads met at Oxted school and have been close friends ever since.

Joseph said: “We were thinking that, when we got to Brighton, we could go out for a few pints. But the closer we get to the march, the less I think that is likely… we are just going to be worn out and want to sleep! But you never know…”