Hi, my name is Dale, a serving soldier based in Cyprus. I am raising money towards rescuing 3 x stray cats from Cyprus and bringing them back to the UK with us.

Cyprus is literally littered with stray cats, most are in very poor health and struggle to survive without human assistance, particularly in the summer heat. We’ve been based here since 2023, and in that time we have paid to have several local strays neutered and to receive emergency vet treatment.

But 3 of these cats have grown particularly fond of us, they sneak in our house to sleep (and steal extra food ).

We are posted back to the UK end of Jan and are worried nobody else will care for them when we leave

So we have adopted these cats and now raising funds to fly them back to the UK, to join us when we return at the end of the month

For the past 2yrs I have been the Chief Instructor at the Joint Services Adventurous Training Wing, Sub Aqua Branch. So to raise funds towards flying the cats back, I’ve (stupidly) decided to run a marathon (26.2 miles) wearing full SCUBA (minus fins, for obvious reasons) around Larnaca this January! ‍♂️

This is one of those last minute ideas I’ve somehow talked myself into… I’ve never even ran a marathon before…never mind in SCUBA… and as it’s a last minute idea before we move, I’ve done zero training for this either… but in true squaddie style I’m going to wing it… and hope for the best!

The flight back for the cats is expected to cost around £1200, we’ve already paid for their jabs, and pet passports etc so anything raised over the cost of the flight will be donated to Cops Cats, a Cyprus based cat charity:

https://m.facebook.com/CopsCats/

So naturally, the route will start and finish at Cops Cats Cafe, Pyla. I am aiming to run the marathon on 17th January 25.

Thank you for reading and wish me luck! ‍♂️