Proud to compete for UK at Invictus Games

FIVE TEAM MEMBERS FROM CITY TELL THEIR INCREDIBLE STORIES

- CLARE AINSWORTH

FIVE serving and veteran members of the Armed Forces from Plymouth will be competing in this year’s Invictus Games.

The Royal British Legion, in partnership with the Ministry of Defence, will be leading the team to Düsseldorf, Germany, in September and at the 2025 Games in Whistler and Vancouver, Canada.

The Royal British Legion supports everyone in the Armed Forces, facing illness or injury. The charity, in partnership with the Ministry of Defence, will take a team of veterans and military personnel to take part in this year’s games and aims to raise awareness of the service and sacrifice of servicemen and women and the power of sport to inspire recovery.

The first Invictus Games took place in London in 2014 and were followed by games in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2022. It is an international multi-sport event for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women, both serving and veterans. It was created by the Duke of Sussex who was inspired after visiting the Warrior Games in America 2013.

The Plymouth members of the team will compete in various disciplines and all have their own stories of recovery from serious injuries and set backs.

Here, they tell The Herald their individual stories: 

Corporal Stephen Hooper Sports: Athletics, Powerlifting, Sitting Volleyball 

STEVE Hooper, from Sherford, served in the RAF as a Mechanical Transport Driver, going out to aircraft crashes, carrying out evidence preservation, and moving aircraft across the world. Whist serving his first tour of Iraq, Steve was deployed as a battlefield ambulance driver, where he witnessed horrific injuries and soldiers losing their best friends.