Veteran pedals thousands of miles for Help for Heroes

A former soldier with a spinal injury has been thanked by Help for Heroes for hitting the £20,000 mark following two years of intense fundraising.

North Yorkshire veteran, Justin Henderson, admits to having hated cycling when he was in the army. But since being given a recumbent tricycle in 2014, he has devoted much of his spare time in the saddle.

When he is not on the road, training for a long-distance ride, Justin can usually be found pedalling his bike in the foyer of a supermarket or a Moto service station somewhere in the North East, with a collecting bucket for donations by his side.

When he's not in the saddle, the father of two works as a part-time receptionist at Help for Heroes northern Recovery Centre, Phoenix House in Catterick.

It was there that the Charity’s Director of Fundraising, Alistair Lockhart, surprised Justin with a certificate to mark his dedication to the cause in front of a gathering of staff, who showed their admiration of his efforts with a rousing round of applause.

Mr Lockhart said that, as a keen user of Twitter, he had followed Justin’s fundraising exploits since the start.

Justin, who comes from York but now lives in Colburn, was given a recumbent trike in 2014 by a fellow beneficiary to enable him to take part in a cycling tour of regional war memorials – from Seaham to Ripon in six days.

He has hardly stopped cycling since.

In 2015, he took part in the Catterick to Windsor Hero Ride; the following year he was given a place on the Help for Heroes Big Battlefield Bike Ride, for which the Charity grant-funded him a new, specially-measured, trike.

A freak accident while stationed in Germany left Justin with a broken back and limited mobility and he was medically discharged. His fractured L5 vertebra was been replaced with a prosthetic vertebra and has to manage constant pain.

The modest 41-year- old praised his wife Sam for her constant support.

Justin is set to return to the battlefields of France, Belgium and the Netherlands for this year’s 350-mile Hero Ride from Lille to Arnhem. [](https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Justin-Hendersonbbbr17)To support Justin visit his fundraising page.