RAF Halton Recruit Training Staff raise Money for the Pink Ribbon Foundation

Physical Training Instructors at RAF Halton, and members of the RAF Ladies Football Team, recently took part in a gruelling physical challenge, in memory of Sgt Lynsey Miller (Secretary of the RAF Ladies Football Team), who passed away suddenly in January this year after a short battle with breast cancer. The event raised money for the Pink Ribbon Foundation, at the request of Lynsey’s family.

The 24 hour event took place at the Finlay Gym where participants completed twenty four, fifteen minute workouts, on the hour, every hour. The events were planned by a mixture of Recruit Training Squadron (RTS) staff and recruits. Many seemed to take this as an opportunity to ‘get their own back’ on the instructors, resulting in very demanding sessions such as 15 minutes of Tabata rowing (twenty seconds max effort, ten seconds recovery, repeated thirty times), a 1.5 mile best effort run followed by burpees at 0300, and of course, many, many more burpees!

The event started at noon on Thursday 24 March, and finished at noon on Friday 25 March. Cpl Zara McIntosh, who played football with Lynsey said: “After several seasons playing football with Lynsey aka ‘Big Bird’, I’m sure she would be more inclined to drink a pint of beer on the hour, every hour for 24 hours, rather than be in the gym! It was however a great opportunity to raise money for a very worthy cause.”

The Pink Ribbon Foundation is a grant making trust with a mission to fund projects and provide financial support to UK charities which relieve the needs of people who are suffering from, or who have been affected by breast cancer or who work to advance the understanding of breast cancer, its early detection and treatment. The Foundation has very little infrastructure and relies on the hard workgiven by Trustees, interested parties and its Patrons. This is done in order to maximise the amount which goes to the charities that benefit from the funds raised.

Cpl Ryan Hepworth said: “All the sessions were tough and on their own would ordinarily be a good workout for the day, but to do one every hour was horrendous. The sessions in the night were particularly hard with little, if any sleep, so trying to complete the simplest of exercises was a challenge. Running hill reps at midnight in the pouring down rain stands out as one of the worst sessions!”

In total, ten participants took part in the event, and completed thousands of repetitions, including over 5,000 burpees, 10,000 squats, and 5,000 press ups. Ultimately, thanks to the generosity of those at RTS, friends and family, the participants managed to raise over £600 for a truly deserving charity.