Wall Walk to aid Guards' children

Sgt Christian Hickey

Wall Walk to aid Guards' children


By Andrew Robinson
A CHARITY set up in memory of a Yorkshire Coldstream Guard killed in Iraq is hoping to raise £20,000 to help the children of needy serving and former Guardsmen.


Twenty supporters of Coldstream Kids, set up following the deaths of two Guardsmen, including Sergeant Christian Hickey, from East Bierley in Bradford, will set off on Thursday to walk the length of Hadrian's Wall.Former Guardsman Franco Gasparotti, 42, has organised the walk but a spinal injury will prevent him from walking more than a few miles of the 84-mile route. He suffered the injury when he was attacked during a riot in Belfast in 1989. His injuries meant he had to retire from the Army and is on a war pension.

Mr Gasparotti, originally from Thornbury in Bradford, spent two years in rehabilitation, learned to walk again and now runs a business offering personalised fitness training.Based in Epsom, Surrey, he works to improve the fitness of clients and draws on his Army experience when he was a keen boxer, runner, swimmer and footballer.Setting up the charity and org-anising the walk was his way of "putting something back", he says."The incident in Belfast ended my career and I spent two years in rehabilitation.

Two vertebrae in my back were crushed and this triggered rheumatic disease of the spine."I felt forgotten about when I came out of rehabilitation and it was a big wrench. I missed out on a career that I really enjoyed."The Ministry of Defence and the way it works didn't do enough for me. I am still being treated for post traumatic stress disorder and am a 50 per cent disabled war pensioner. I wanted to try and put something back.
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