Longridge father and son in Death March

This year’s Death March took place last Saturday night (9th August). Car mechanic Mark, who is one of three co-proprietors of Longridge’s family run Belmont Garage & Sons Ltd, and Andrew (17), a cybersecurity student at Blackpool and The Fylde College, who as of next month will begin a year’s service as one of three cadets to accompany the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire on official engagements, were among 12,649 people from across the world to set out on the march from Bornem in Antwerp province.

Of these, 3,374 quit en route. Mark, who is a Warrant Officer with Preston Air Cadets of which wife Claire is Commanding Officer, daughter Rachael (16) a Cadet Sergeant and Andrew a Cadet Flight Sergeant, explained: “The Death March, which has over a 50 year history, is both a physical and mental challenge.

“The distance has to be achieved within 24 hours. Being Belgium, the route itself is largely flat but a straight road also makes it unrelenting. It starts off at 9 pm and it’s case of just keeping going until the very end. It feels though that it’s never ending!”

Mark and Andrew achieved the march in a creditable 19 hours, 56 minutes. Mark, a qualified mountain leader, said: “Andrew and I are currently walking the Wainwrights in the Lake District and out of 214 peaks you have to complete, we’ve done 120. This definitely helped us as the Death March isn’t something you can do without training for it.

“We had a plan to try and walk at about 5km per hour. We were averaging just over 7 km for the first 50km but then we hit a wall and no matter how hard we tried, our pace dropped to around 4.5km and we couldn’t pick it up. This is when it gets dangerous. There are 12 checkpoints en route and you have to make them by a certain time to be allowed to continue.”

Mark added: “Luckily, we passed a music station of which there were several to help spur people on and the DJ was playing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. We had a sing-a-long to it and at the same time, there was a message from a friend, who had just donated £30. This gave us the impetus to get back up to a 6km per hour pace. We’re both extremely grateful to everyone who supported us. Rosemere Cancer Foundation is a cause close to our hearts.”

Yvonne Stott, community and events fundraising for Rosemere Cancer Foundation, said: “Our congratulations to Mark and Andrew for achieving such an arduous challenge. The amount of effort and determination required to make it to end in the time allowed must be huge. It leaves me in awe. It’s a memory for life though that they did it together as father and son. Thank you to everyone who supported them.”

Rosemere Cancer Foundation works to bring world class cancer treatments and services to cancer patients from throughout Lancashire and South Cumbria being treated at Rosemere Cancer Centre, Lancashire and South Cumbria’s specialist regional cancer treatment and radiotherapy centre at the Royal Preston Hospital, and at another eight local hospital cancer units across the two counties.

The charity funds cutting-edge equipment, clinical research, staff training and innovative services and initiatives that the NHS cannot afford in order to make patients’ cancer journey more effective, comfortable and stress-free. For further information on its work, including how to make a donation, visit www.rosemere.org.uk