He's Done It! Phil Packer completes the Virgin London Marathon + Comment from the DBF Representative, Adam Layer

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Congratulations to the inspirational Phil Packer who crossed the Finish Line of the Virgin London Marathon after an exhausting 25 hours and 55 minutes beating his 2009 London Marathon time by 13 days.

Adam Layer accompanies Phil Packer on Mile 4. Photo: Robert Pascall

Phil had come up with the amazing concept of “26″; 26 Miles for 26 Charities in 26 Hours, and the Douglas Bader Foundation was honoured and delighted to have been nominated as one of his 26 charities. The DBF representative, 18 year old Adam Layer, walked Mile 4 with Major Packer and then joined the other 25 charity representatives to accompany him over the Finish Line. Congratulations to Adam and thanks to him for his ongoing support of the Douglas Bader Foundation. We couldn’t have wished for a better nominee and were proud have him as the charity’s representative.

Major Packer used his time with each charity nominee to learn more about them and their individual situations so that he could gather information to help with his hugely ambitious next project; the creation of a multi-million pound British Centre of Excellence. Phil’s aspiration is to provide a residential retreat for disadvantaged young people where he hopes they will be able to gain inspiration and hope for the future. You can learn more about this from Phil’s Website by clicking on this link.

We will be publishing more on Phil’s amazing achievement over the next couple of days and hope to have photographs coming in soon but, for now, we just wanted to congratulate him and to thank him for supporting the Douglas Bader Foundation in true Bader spirit.

Adam Layer and Phil Packer having completed Mile 4. Photo: Robert Pascall

Adam Layer, the Douglas Bader Representative who walked MILE 4 with Major Packer sent this comment:

“I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend in London for the Virgin Money London Marathon and, in particular, representing The Douglas Bader Foundation and walking mile 4 with Phil Packer it was a fantastic experience that I will never forget and I’d like to thank everyone who made it possible and supported us for that mile. Walking for that mile, Phil’s focus was to find out as much as possible about me and also about the Foundation which was brilliant and along with the comments and cheers of encouragement received from the spectators, photographers and reporters the whole adventure was just so memorable

For the last 365 yards of the Marathon, all 26 support walkers (one from each of the charities that Phil had chosen to support) joined Phil, which was a wonderful chance to meet up with other young people who had met their own personal challenges. Following the 0.2 miles and a flurry of press, I was presented a certificate and t-shirt by Richard Branson’s daughter who had completed the marathon as part of a caterpillar the day before.

I hope that by parading the Douglas Bader Foundation logo through Woolwich and also down the Mall, I and my small army of supporters, have raised the profile of a small but purposeful and very focussed charity.

Where to go from here? Well I’d like to think I can continue to support the DBF and hope to get involved in some of the activities, particularly the flying days and the latest Bader Braves activity weekend.”

The Douglas Bader Foundation was enormously proud to have you represent us, Adam, and look forward to working with you in the future. We are very grateful for your ongoing support.

WELL DONE, PHIL AND ADAM, AND THANK YOU. AN AMAZING ACHIEVEMENT!

You can click HERE to see a Sky News interview with Phil Packer during his DBF Mile 4 with Adam Layer.

We will bring more News Items and photographs as they come in so keep watching this space.