SOLDIER Jason Wilkes has served across the globe, but now he faces one of his toughest challenges yet.
The Royal Engineer, who has seen active service in Iraq and Northern Ireland, is taking part in the Walking with the Wounded race to the South Pole.
Yesterday the 40-year-old, from Haswell, County Durham, was in Iceland with the rest of Team UK training for the Antarctic expedition.
Already this week they have faced a white-out blizzard as well as sub-zero temperatures on the Langjokull Glacier.
“It is going well,” said Jason, who has left behind wife Lisa and five-month-old son Jenson to tackle the challenge. “We’re up on a glacier today.
“I’ve been training hard at my local gym in Consett, Spartan Performance, so I feel prepared, but it is much colder here.”
Walking with the Wounded, which has Prince Harry as its patron, will see three teams race 330 km to the South Pole this November.
It is being billed as the largest modern day expedition to the South Pole, with the teams made up of ex-soldiers from the UK, USA and Commonwealth who were wounded in combat.
Team UK also includes Hexham explorer Conrad Dickinson as a guide.
Jason, who was in the army for 19 years, suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.
Although most of his colleagues on the challenge face physical injuries, he wants to highlight the difficulties posed by mental health.
“I want to put myself out there,” Jason said. He signed up for the challenge while recovering at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire.
“I want to say to people, you don’t have to do something amazing like this challenge, just going out of the house for the first time or going to the shops for the first time can be a big step.
“Put your hand up and say I need help rather than having that rough, tough squaddie attitude. You are more of a man if you can cry than if you can’t. My team call me the all-limber, because I’m the only one with nothing missing. It is humbling for me to meet people who have lost both legs or an arm.
“When we talk they say they wouldn’t like to be suffering what I go through, while I can’t imagine coping with what they do. It sometimes feels like I need a speech bubble above my head saying ‘I have PTSD’.
But for every soldier who has a physical injury, there are thought to be four with a mental injury.”
Jason plans to run the Half Marathon of the North in Sunderland later this year as part of his training.
But he will drag two tyres all the way round the course. He added: “I hope all the people of the North East will get behind me, just like they did for Joe McElderry.”
The money raised by the polar expedition will help to re-train and re-educate wounded service leavers. Visit www.walkingwiththewounded.org.uk for details.
