Four British soldiers with battle amputations are planning an epic, unaided 300-mile trek from Siberia to the North Pole in an attempt to raise £1m to rehabilitate injured compatriots. If the team succeeds, they will be the first amputees to walk unaided to the North Pole. On March 19, Prince Harry, the younger son of the Prince Charles and third in line to the British throne, announced that he will be the expedition’s patron and said that he hopes to join them for the final five days of their trek.
Ex-Royal Engineer Copsey, Lieutenant Guy Disney, Captain Martin Hewitt, and Marine Matthew Kingston were chosen from a pool of 100 wounded military and ex-military personnel who applied to take part in the journey. Lt Copsey joined the military at 16 and fought in the Gulf War and Rwanda, where he sustained a transtibial amputation after stepping on a land mine. Disney lost his leg to a rocket-propelled grenade. Hewitt lost his right arm to gunshot wounds, and Kingston lost a leg to similar injuries.
“It’s the ultimate challenge,” Copsey told a BBC news crew. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I’m grabbing it by the horns and going for it.” Copsey is training for the event by running on Dover beach seven days per week with three tires dragging behind him, mimicking the load he’ll endure while dragging his 245-lb. supply sled across the ice. His only real worries are about frostbite he said, though the Arctic Circle holds some of the most hostile terrain on earth, not to mention polar bears.
“It’s going to show employers that if you’ve lost a limb you’re still capable of doing any job,” Copsey concluded. “It’s a state of mind. If you’ve got a strong mind, if you’ve got a strong support network of family and friends, you can do anything.”
