Three friends raise thousands for charity

THREE friends walked 100kms in three days through the World War One battlefields in October to raise money for a soldier’s charity.

Steve Milne, Jonny Peat and Rob Hulley donned their walking boots to take on the Frontline Walk to raise money for the Army Benevolent Fund.

The Soldiers Charity was established in 1944 to help injured soldiers and their immediate family when they need it the most. Countless servicemen and women have benefited from ABF aid and will continue to do so for many years to come.

One of the battlefields was the Somme, where the Sheffield Pals Battalion were massacred at the Battle of the Somme on July 1 1916.

Almost 20,000 soldiers lost their lives on that fateful first day, with another 40,000 injured.

The three friends have raised around £10,000 for the charity in doing the walk and have had many backers including Sheffield Wednesday.

Their base of operations was the Thorncliffe Arms in Chapeltown, who allowed them to hold functions and raise thousands.

Steve Milne served in the TA for 23 years as a medic in the 212 field hospital based in Sheffield and has a distant relative who was awarded the Victoria Cross in WW1.

He said:

I’d like to thank everyone who helped, the management of the pub have been so accommodating to this charity, we have many stories and photos of the event before and during."

I have done the event twice before so this was a third time for me. Overall, countrywide, in five years of the event, it’s raised over £1,000,000 for the charity.”