Miracle man tackles cancer support challenge

Paul Vice to walk from Exeter to Cheshire

A former Royal Marine dubbed the commando who refused to die is tackling a new challenge to raise money for Devon cancer support charity FORCE.

Paul Vice, who has a prosthetic leg, plans to walk 232 miles from Exeter to Cheshire unsupported and do a 300ft bungee jump when he gets there.

The ex RM corporal from Exeter suffered catastrophic injuries when he was blown up by an improvised explosive device in 2011 while serving in Afghanistan. 

He "died" twice when his heart stopped as he was airlifted back to Camp Bastion in Helmand Province.

The father-of-four suffered a broken neck, severed artery, brain damage, a paralysed right arm, is deaf in one ear, blind in one eye and had 400 pieces of shrapnel and stone inside him after the explosion.

The left side of his body was, in his words, smashed to pieces, and after a number of operations, he decided to have his left leg amputated three years later.

Paul, who had already received the Military Cross for gallantry, went on to win cycling gold at the Invictus Games alongside fellow former serviceman and TV presenter JJ Chalmers and Robert Cromley-Hawke.

After leaving the Royal Marines he drove racing cars in the British GT Championship and became a stunt man in film and TV.

A veteran of six tours to Afghanistan and Iraq, the 43-year-old could be forgiven for seeking a quiet life but that’s not in his nature.

He came up with the idea of walking from FORCE Cancer Charity’s Support Centre in Exeter to Tatton Park near Manchester after raising £5,000 for the organisation by completing the Three Peaks Challenge earlier this year.

FORCE offers free support to people in Devon dealing with a cancer diagnosis and all of its services are paid for by donations, grants, legacies and fundraising.

Paul loves the fact that FORCE is local and offers face-to-face help for thousands of people affected by cancer he said: “I wear my disability well but it’s not easy walking with a prosthetic leg. I want to make this challenge as hard as I can to engage more people with it,” 

“It’s about grabbing attention. I can do a few days of discomfort standing on my head. It won’t be easy but that’s nothing compared to what the people using FORCE are dealing with. There’s so much bad news in the world, why not create some good news. The money we raise will go towards helping people I don’t know and will probably never meet. But I don’t need to. It’s about giving something back and it helps me sleep at night.”

He will set off from the FORCE Support and Information Centre in Exeter at 8:30am on Wednesday September 24 and will stop off in Taunton, Bristol, Hereford, Crewe and several points in between on his way to the bungee site.

He’s given himself 10 days to complete the walk with his jump booked for Saturday October 4.

“I’ll be relying on the generosity of the communities I pass through to support me and I hope some people will walk some of it with me. They can camp with me too but they’ll have to bring a tent because I won’t have one!
“I will be doing some training. I thought I’d do the Three Peaks without training and it wasn’t nice – I ripped my stump coming down Ben Nevis” he said.
Paul is hoping to smash the £5k he raised last time and is inspired to keep supporting FORCE by a friend who had bowel cancer twice.
“He’s doing well but just because my mate is better doesn’t mean others are. If you can help you should and I’m in the fortunate position that I can,” said Paul.
You can sponsor him at https://www.justgiving.com/page/paul-vice-mc