We meet a Shifnal man, former service man who will be trekking across the country for charity.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00So we're here in Shiffnell with Barry, Barry Yintze, how are you sir?
00:03I'm very well thank you, it's nice of you to come round.
00:06Now you don't normally hang about in your kind of your
00:09neckerchiefs and your running challenge top there, walking challenge top but
00:14big big event coming up in March fill us in on what it's all about Barry.
00:17Yeah a friend of mine John McBride from
00:21St Andrews in Scotland first mentioned to
00:25this to me about 12 months ago that he was interested in doing the Lands End to
00:29John O'Groats. Now John and I are old army colleagues
00:33from many years back and we've been involved in charity
00:36events for a number of years now, mostly doing
00:41long distance events up in Scotland, the biggest one being the Caterham
00:46Yomp which is 54 miles non-stop in 24 hours.
00:51Wow. In the in the Cairngorms. I was going to say that's not going to be
00:54flat up in Scotland. Yeah yeah it's one of the toughest of its type.
00:57Yeah and the weather the weather you get up there as well I imagine doesn't
01:01help a lot all the time. So he was short of a team member the
01:07one year and he phoned me up and asked me if I was interested
01:10it's going back about 10 years now and I says yeah fine
01:13John I'm happy to do that and I've been doing it with him
01:17ever since. I missed a few years with Covid but
01:20John's done eight I've done five of them. Yeah so
01:24how old are you then Barry? I'm 17 now. Shouldn't you be taking it easy?
01:28Do you know what I mean? My body are telling me I should.
01:33But I'm not ready to give in just yet. Yeah well I guess if you've got it
01:38flaunts it that's what they're saying it. So what do you do in terms of getting
01:42yourself ready then training? Have you always kept yourself
01:45fit? Is that something that's been drilled into from army life? Yeah I mean
01:49I've always been a standard of fitness where I can up it
01:53or you know ease down if there's nothing in particular I'm going for.
01:58Yeah. So I keep myself at a fairly decent level.
02:01Unfortunately now my knee plays up so
02:04you know that does that stop me from running. My biggest thing was
02:09long distance. Yeah running. Marathons. Okay. Ultra
02:14marathons. Yeah. And that's what got me into
02:16charitable stuff. The very first one I did was the
02:19the Beale Marathon. It's a
02:26100 kilometer event in 24 hours. 100 kilometers in 24 hours? Yeah.
02:3264 miles. Wow. Roughly 64 miles and I did that in 10 hours 27 minutes.
02:36And you've still got both your original knees in it then?
02:41This one yeah this one's perfect 100%. Yeah.
02:44This one's had given me problems for the last. I'm not surprised.
02:48But I'm keeping going. Yeah. I went to see a surgeon at
02:54Oswestry. Orthopaedic surgeon and I had it x-rayed and they tell me I'm
03:00going to have to have a new knee at some stage.
03:02Yeah. But I'm not ready for this yet. Probably after.
03:06Yeah by about June the 20th. That's if I complete it. You know it's a challenge.
03:11Yeah yeah. It's going to be tough. So how long have you got to do this one then?
03:15Um well we we set our own time limit. Yeah.
03:19We we're starting on the 23rd of March. We plan to be finished for about the
03:241st of June. So um roughly
03:28666 between 60 and 67 days um depending on whether we need to
03:34take any time off. So we're here in. For any reason. Which
03:38how close is the will the route bring you back to home here in Shifford?
03:42Take us right through. Will it? Oh great. Yeah well I'm not actually in Shiffnall.
03:46Yeah. Um Kemperton's about the closest place. Although
03:49um I don't know if you know the Indian restaurant on the road out to Wolverhampton.
03:54Yeah yeah. Well we pass down there. We we pass right past there
03:58on the Monarchs Trail. Yeah of course. So when we get into Shropshire from
04:02from Nineton we got to Craven Arms. Craven Arms
04:05Muchwenlock. Muchwenlock. Ironbridge. Ironbridge up to Kemperton.
04:11Um Kemperton through to uh oh it escapes me now.
04:20Someone I'll know on the day.
04:26And then on into Stafford and onwards and upwards.
04:30So this mental strength you know need to do these challenges
04:35and when you did your long distance running is that something that
04:38you've kind of learned from being in the services do you think? Oh yeah.
04:42Yeah. I mean uh I've always been involved in endurance events and
04:49sports all through my army career um and uh I think what gave me the
04:54additional um mental ability to do these things was
04:59my time with the airborne forces. Yeah. Um because um that's a particular
05:06type of training that's that that gave me a good grounding for um
05:11for this type of event really. Yeah. Endurance events. Yeah.
05:15So it's how many's doing it? How many going with you? You've got your friend
05:20your former your veteran as well friend. Is it
05:22just the two of you? Is there a few of you or? Well it's just
05:25Shaun and I are actually going to walk it and we've got another ex-military guy
05:28who's volunteered to drive um the camper van. Yeah. Well it's a
05:33motorhome um and uh he'll be our support
05:38on road and set up each of our evening stops ready for us coming in.
05:43And obviously you're raising some good money for some charities on the way. Just
05:46give a shout out to which charities you'll be benefiting.
05:49Yeah. We're um we're raising money for the
05:52cancer research. 50% of all that we take.
05:5630% will go to the army benevolent fund the soldiers charity.
06:00Um 10% local charity for me will be the um
06:04Midlands Air Ambulance. Yeah. Good one. John's got a
06:08a charity that he's particularly fond of.
06:12Yeah. Fife near St Andrews where he lives. So are you still in touch with many of
06:16your ex-service friends then? Is it still like a
06:20family once you leave? You know what I mean? Yeah. We don't tend to
06:24I don't tend to go to many reunions. I haven't been for one for
06:28many many many years um but uh we do keep in touch by
06:32Facebook etc social media. And this you're you're wrote into the
06:37services we were having a little chat off camera.
06:39You were a cadet as a young lad and you think
06:42that kind of inspired you being part of the cadets? Yeah I joined the cadets when
06:47I was I don't know I must have been about 13 or so.
06:50Yeah. And uh I didn't do it for very long did it for a couple of years
06:55and then I went away and did other things.
06:58But it's something that um uh interested me
07:02in the military although I didn't go down that career straight away.
07:06That's something that I I decided I was going to do when I was a little older.
07:10Actually I was 19 when I when I um decided to join the army. Yeah.
07:17Do you think um you know chatting saying that the kind of the
07:21mental strength comes from things you've learned in the services.
07:26Do you think we need to as a bit of that
07:29the art of resilience that we're losing a little bit and we kind of
07:33could do with being taught a bit more? I do but I don't know how we're going to
07:37get it back. No I don't know. Unless um
07:42youngsters of today are interested in cadets or
07:45scouting or groups of a similar ilk. Yeah.
07:49And get involved in venture training and and and learn good meaningful skills.
07:55Um I'm not sure. Yeah. Because there's no chance we'll ever go back to national service.
08:00Um doesn't wouldn't suit everybody anyway but the the the infrastructure is
08:04just not there. Yeah. To go down that road.
08:08So this challenge coming up what what are you concerned about the most?
08:11Is it what the weather's going to do to you? Is it your knee?
08:15No it's my knee. Yeah. Myself down through um physical um
08:21issues. Certainly not mental. I would never give in
08:24mentally. If I have to give in it's because
08:28my knee will just be so bad that it um it will prevent me from going any
08:32further and it would have to be bad. Has the reeking featured in any of
08:36your training? Yeah. Yeah. Useful to have that on our doorstep.
08:40Mind you me saying that I've only walked a bit twice in my life.
08:43I wish I had a fiver for every time I've done it. I've been a rich man.
08:47Yeah I've always used the reeking as a basis of my training.
08:51Well we wish you all the best and um you'll have to keep us updated and uh
08:55we'll perhaps get in touch after the event and see how you've got on.
08:58Fingers crossed that knee will hold out for you. Yeah well thank you very much.
09:02Cheers. Thanks Barry. Good luck mate. Cheers buddy. Thank you Steve.