What’s it like to be away from your family?  That’s really hard to ask and put into words the answer.

Even though this is something we as soldiers do and I have done many deployments including Kosovo, Iraq, Cyprus and previously Afghanistan, I am on my sixth tour now since our daughter was born, it does not get any easier I can tell you that and you don’t get used to it.
Something changes when you are away, a part of your wall disappears and you become vulnerable, you miss things that are important to your family, Christmas, birthdays, school plays and parents evenings, things people take for granted in a normal life.
Life at home can’t stop and my Louise then becomes Mother, Father, friend, taxi driver! and everything else… the strain that happens when I go away can be felt on the phone and in the letters that are written which makes it even harder for me when I’m away as all you want to do is be there and make things better for them.

I’m so happy that Madison has found something to channel her energy into and I cannot express how proud I am of her, it brings a tear to my eye when I see her on the news or hear her voice on the radio. I believe that this HELP for HEROES trek that she is going to undertake is going to be hard for Madison and her friends but if she has got the same strength that her mother has shown over the last year I know I will be seeing pictures of smiling faces on top of Snowdon very soon!!!