A recently retired Army major from Thirsk has been shortlisted for a prestigious award.
Sip Powers is a finalist in the inspiration category of the 2022 Soldiering On Awards.
The award honours a person who has overcome significant challenges, injury or disability, and whose ongoing or past outstanding achievements are an inspiration to others within the Armed Forces community.
The winner of the award will be chosen through a public vote.
Sip recently retired as a major from the Armed Forces after 34 years’ service.
Alongside a distinguished career, during which he suffered his own significant health issues, Sip dedicated much of his spare time to support wounded, injured and sick service (WIS) personnel.
Sip devoted over a decade to the BattleBack initiative as an adaptive senior instructor and established the Help for Heroes Paraclimbing Team, working closely with Team GB.
After two years of planning, he completed Enduro7 to raise funds and awareness for Combat Stress.
This personal endurance challenge demonstrated the effects of sleep deprivation linked to mental health issues.
Sip remained awake for 185 hours, completing seven different 24-hour endurance events. Following this, he became the Combat Stress County Representative for Lancashire, supporting 300,000 Veterans.
Sip has also completed 17 Ironman competitions, including the gruelling BattleBack1000, coordinated and completed the Everest Charity Climb, tackling the height of Everest twice over five days, and is now coordinating a new guide route on Mount Kilimanjaro.
Sip also personally oversaw the MoD Adaptive Home project, ensuring 120 homes met the clinical needs of seriously wounded and injured service personnel.
Sip has now created his own business Extreme Outdoors enabling WIS personnel and veterans to access the great outdoors to assist with mentoring, coaching and wellbeing development.
Sip was nominated by friend Carl Springthorpe.
He said: “Sip achieved Enduro7 with sheer determination and willpower, knowing that he would be raising the profile of mental health issues faced by Veterans suffering in silence.
“Through the numerous gruelling endurance charity events he’s instigated and participated in, Sip has raised awareness and generated more than £40k for military charities.”
Voting is now live and closes at 11.59pm on Sunday, September 11.
It takes 30 seconds to vote and no registration is required.
Vote online at https://soldieringon.org/soa-2022-inspiration-award-finalists/
This award is sponsored by NatWest.
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