Hi, this is John Fairley
I am now 58 and a relatively successful businessman having built and sold my own businesses and I now help other businesses to grow and be successful.

I had the privilege of serving for some 20 years as an army officer. I served with the
7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery (7RHA), where I finished my career in command of G Battery (Mercer’s Troop) RHA, which won a battle honour at Waterloo.

I had a major accident as a young officer whilst serving with 41 Commando Group and I would not have recovered to the extent I have without the help of a year’s rehabilitation at Headley Court – the now famous and critically important military rehabilitation unit. I served in Dhofar, Northern Ireland and with Special Forces. In that time a number of my friends, acquaintances and my own soldiers were severely wounded or injured. In most cases, sadly not all, they made significant recoveries helped by Headley Court and all the other support agencies.

Unfortunately in today’s social environment our fighting soldiers, whom I admire enormously are not being looked after properly by their political masters, who of course have no experience of service and sacrifice. The military covenant ( the incumbent duty of care to soldiers, when put in harms way, and their families), which we soldiers always accepted as being “stretched” in time of peace, is now being broken. Despite some great efforts, by Richard Dannatt the outgoing Chief of the General Staff (CGS), who was my room mate as young officer cadets at Sandhurst some 40 years ago, our wounded and disabled soldiers need as much help as they can get.

Having raced a yacht round the world “the wrong way” against the winds in 2000/2001, I am now taking part in THE ARC transatlantic yacht race, starting 22 Nov 09 from Las Palmas, Canaries finishing in St Lucia around 14 Dec 09. I am crewing on Great Escape, a 52’ Jenneau yacht with seven other crew who are supporting this fund raising endeavour. In particular Mo Hand , who works for Barclaycard, has persuaded them to match her efforts of sponsorship, which is really great, so the more sponsorship she gets the better. We will be flying the H4H flag from our backstay. It is going to be fun and I suspect will have it’s difficult moments!

The reason for doing the race is to try and raise funds, on the back of the race, for H4H. All the monies raised will go to H4H. None will be used to support my own costs.

I am deeply grateful to all those who are supporting me in this endeavour – my fellow crew, clients, my business friends and associates and my close friends. Many of whom are donating there support free of charge.

So please dig deep and donate now for something that is very important for all those young men fighting for their buddies, Regiment and Country and extolling those wonderful values of service and sacrifice.