South Pole trek beckons for Littlehampton war hero Mike

Mike Goody, 27, formerly of White Horses Way, has just returned from a two-week training session in Iceland’s frozen tundra alongside other injured servicemen and women hoping to tackle the trek.

Mike, who now lives in Felpham, hopes to be selected for the Walking With The Wounded expedition, which plans to take three teams from the UK, US and Commonwealth to Antarctica, in November.

If successful, he will travel 205 miles across the frozen wastes to the South Pole, facing sub-zero temperatures, dropping as low as -35 degrees Celsius, blizzards and conditions so inhospitable that it has made the Antarctic the only continent not to have an indigenous human population.

Not to mention the possibility of winds whipping of up to 100mph, the chance of a deadly white-out storms and treacherous crevasses.

Mike said: “It’s an honour to get this far, to be honest. But the training in Iceland was a completely different ball game.

“I’ve never done cross-country skiing before, so it got kind of interesting, with balance problems.

“It was physically and mentally exhausting, working muscles I never knew I had and some that I don’t have anymore.

“I could have really done with some of the leg muscles that I have lost!

“It can also be pretty lonely skiing, even though we’re in a group, as we’re in a single line going two hours at a time.”

Mike will find out soon if he is one of the lucky few to take on this year’s trek, which will be followed by camera crews and televised in a future documentary.

For the full story, see this week’s Littlehampton Gazette (Thursday, March 21).