Ten Tors for STEPS
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Each year The Thomas Hardye School CCF enters two teams in the Ten Tors expedition on Dartmoor. In this, self-sufficient groups of six young people navigate themselves across the moor along a route covering 35 or 45 miles, all of which must be done within 36 hours. For this they have had to train very intensively and all in their own time.
This year the teams have wanted to help other young people from all over the UK who have the same adventurous spirit but who have suffered from physical complications early on in their lives.
To this end they have focussed on STEPs, a small national charity supporting children and adults affected by a lower limb condition such as clubfoot or Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip (DDH) after a teacher at the school had a daughter diagnosed with DDH.
Mr Pearce stated “At the age of 14 months my daughter (pictured on the left) was diagnosed with Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip (DDH). This was missed during routine checks and she therefore had to undergo surgery to correct this condition. If it had been caught early enough she would only have had to wear a brace without undergoing surgery.
This was a traumatic event for all of us and is still unresolved as she may have to go back into surgery later this year, now aged 3 years.
This is all the more frustrating as my daughter clearly showed the tell tale signs of DDH, but we simply didn't know what to look out for even though lower limb abnormalities including DDH affects between 1 and 2% of new born children.
The money kindly donated by the cadets will help the charity STEPs to raise awareness of this and other lower limb conditions so that other babies do not have to go through what Jorja went through.”
35 Mile Team, from left to right:
Tristran Brodie-Huppertz, Joe Foard (Team leader), Merrillie Hussey, Isabella Eastwood*, Jack Moss, Matthew Hart
45 Mile Team, from left to right:
Guy Nash, Sophie Wakeford (Team leader), Will Terry, Luke Limbach, Tom Rolph, Joshua Walker
Steps charity website - http://www.steps-charity.org.uk
TopJune 2010