Ex-soldier who lost 14 friends to suicide paddles for funds
AN ARMY veteran is planning to kayak across the country to raise funds for a charity memorial to honour soldiers who took their own lives.
Sgt Edward Mackenzie will travel 280 miles from Preston Brook near Liverpool to Putney Bridge in London in the hope of raising £100,000 for the National Memorial Arboretum.
Sgt Mackenzie, has served for 26 years in the Army and lost 17 colleagues to suicide, including his best friend.
He plans on taking a whole team with him throughout a network of canals towards the River Thames.
He said: “We’re doing this because, well, I have lost 17 friends to suicide now in the last 26 years. All were servicemen, though some were veterans at the time. My best friend took his own life after three years of service.
“His name was [put] on the regimental memorial on the Parade Square because he was still serving but those that have taken their lives as veterans don’t automatically go on to a memorial. [If ] I’ve lost 17 friends, think about the other regiments, there must be so many people who haven’t [been] recognised.
“There was a great friend of ours, two and a half to three years ago now, he was the best operator any of us had ever seen. We thought he would outlive us all, but he saw some terrible stuff.
“He stood on top of an IED for six hours waiting for the bomb squad to do their bit and [mentally] was never the same again. If that had been me I would have been mentally scarred for life.”
While he is making the journey, Sgt Mackenzie hopes veterans will come to talk to him as he meanders along the rivers. “If veterans want to come and talk to us while we’re kayaking and get something off their chest, they can.
“I’ve discovered recently [when I was at Forth Bridge in Windsor] that a lot of people I was working with felt it more beneficial to talk veteran to veteran rather than someone in a medical practice that didn’t understand the tours that we’ve done or the life we’ve led.”