An army captain has at last been able to complete a fundraising march in memory of his late brother, who died from cancer in 2019.

Captain Simon Mander, who serves in the Royal Logistics Corps, has been in the army for 36 years.

He had initially intended to raise money for Cancer Research UK back in the spring of 2020 before coronavirus intervened, but he has at last been able to complete his fundraiser 18 months on.

Captain Mander’s brother, Chris Mander, had served in the Royal Tank Regiment as a regimental sergeant major, but was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2016.

Four years on, Captain Mander has managed to raise over £5,000 which he will donate to Colchester Personnel Recovery Centre – a facility which ensures wounded, injured and sick armed forces personnel receive care and support as they return to full health.

But Captain Mander’s fundraising efforts were not without proper, military-style graft his brother would surely have been proud of.

He and three others set off on a 52-mile trek from the Colchester Personnel Recovery Centre at noon on Friday September 3, hiking the 13 miles towards Mersea Island through the night.

The foursome then completed two laps of Mersea – where they were joined by eight other fundraisers – before trekking the 13 miles back to the finish line at Colchester Personnel Recovery Centre.

They returned the following morning, Saturday September 4, at 09:10am – and Captain Mander was understandably proud of his team and their efforts.

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He said: “My parents were here at the end which was an eye opener. It was definitely a job well done – it definitely was not half-hearted.

“It wasn’t only the physical effort we put in – we were walking 30 miles in training sessions.

“We got a massive amount of support from the catering team and the service personnel who supported us – there was a team to make sure it could happen.

“It’s never easy, but if you have done it before you are better prepared in your head.”

Captain Mander had particular praise for one of his team – a cleaner from the Personnel Recovery Centre – who took on the mammoth challenge that lasted over 19 hours.

“One of our cleaners did the 52 miles and she was absolutely phenomenal – she didn’t whinge once,” he said.

“It wasn’t until the end that she admitted that she was really knackered – overcoming all the pain that she did, that really was in the spirit of cancer research.”

Thoughts inevitably returned to Captain Mander’s late brother, Chris, as well as other army personnel who are still battling against cancer.

“I started this because of my brother but it’s become much wider,” he said.

“You hear how common cancer is, but that doesn’t sink in until you are in that bubble and talk to people about it who are fighting cancer.

“People say they are sorry to hear it, but when I said I wanted to do something for charity, people jumped on board.

“Most of us are serving personnel – we had to put some effort in and not to do something insignificant, particularly when we have cancer sufferers come through our centre as well.”

And the work that Colchester Personnel Recovery Centre put in for serving personnel is particularly pertinent to Captain Mander, given that Help for Heroes have since stopped their provisions for veterans at the recovery centre.

“We are a charity that provides support courses and the facilities for personnel to retrain to work – we help to facilitate that transition.

“Sadly Help for Heroes is no longer in that partnership.

“But we have a five-person military team here supported by a 10-strong team of admin staff and we work in conjunction with other local charities.”

Chris Mander was only 60 when he died of cancer, but the efforts of his younger brother – and the £5,000 Captain Mander has raised in his memory – is surely something he would have been proud of.