Ex- paratrooper, 89, completes latest leg in his charity walk
AN 89- YEAR- OLD veteran with blood cancer has completed an “emotional” charity walk along the Leeds to Liverpool canal as part of a 100- mile charity challenge.
Ex- paratrooper Jeffrey Long, from Bingley, walked 10 miles, starting at Silsden at 10am on Saturday in wild and windy conditions, before finishing at the War Memorial, at Bradley, near Skipton, which honours the Polish crew of an aircraft that crashed near the site in 1943.
Mr Long, who injured his back in a parachute jump in 1954, said it was an emotional end to the walk after he planted a poppy cross of remembrance.
The veteran told The Yorkshire Post: “I stood back and saluted and it gave me a tear – it was very emotional.
“The day as a whole was great. It was a bit wild and windy to start with but only it calmed down a little I really enjoyed it.”
Mr Long has now completed three out of his ten planned charity walks, with 37.5 miles now under his belt out of the 100- mile target.
Last month he trekked 11 miles from RAF Linton- on- Ouse to a street in York where another aircraft crashed in 1945, killing 11 people.
He said: “As a paratrooper I was always thankful to the RAF for providing decent aircraft for us to jump out of. This is my way of giving something back.”
He is raising funds for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute ( RNLI) and the Royal Air Force ( RAF) Benevolent Fund
Mr Long said his next walk,
specifically raising funds for the RNLI, would be along a coastal route.
“We’ve got to keep them afloat – that’s my saying with it. And they are so short of money and the big ocean boats built in 1996 – they need updating technology, at a cost of £ 1.25m each – so really I should be aiming to raise into the millions.”
Mr Long began fundraising 11 years ago and has previously walked 650 miles from London to Lausanne in Switzerland.