The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A Spalding man who spent nearly a quarter-of-a-century in the Royal Air Force has just completed an amazing adventure for the Help for Heroes charity.
Chris Heeley, of Leiden Fields, spent ten days in Burma trekking across the South East Asian country to raise funds for the charity.
The 66-year-old is hoping his efforts will break the £4,000 barrier – and is now looking at taking on more charity challenges.
He explained: “I found out about the trip to Burma last summer and it was something I was interested in doing.
“Having served as an aircraft technician in the RAF for 24 years, it is a charity which is very close to my heart.
“The date of the departure also appealed to me as it was my wife’s birthday. She died a couple of years ago so it was in her memory as well.
“It was just a case of signing up, getting fit and raising some money.
“I am hoping to raise around £4,000 when everything is collected in which I’m really pleased about.”
The former Spalding Grammar School pupil was part of a 32-strong party which jetted out to He Ho before being transferred to the small town of Pindaya.
On the afternoon of their arrival, they were given a taste of things to come as the party was sent onto a winding jungle climb into the hills where they reached the first of the monastries for their overnight stops.
Treks on the following days, which on a daily average were around ten miles, and took the party through dense bamboo forest on their way to isolated agricultural villages.
The final part of the memorable journey took Chris and his fellow adventurers through the town of Kalaw, across a range of limestone mountains before their end point at Lake Inle.
Chris continued: “Burma was a lovely country and the locals were very friendly.
“It was around 35 degrees during the day so it was extremely tough. We stayed in different monastries at night and, as they are all in the hills, we also had a steep climb at the end of the day.
“We had a great gang together though. It was a laugh a minute.
“There were injured ex-service personnel among the party so everyone was there for each other and we all helped one another through it.
“I’d never done anything like it before, but I’m now thinking I’d like to do something else again.”
