Walking With The Wounded co-founder ‘super chuffed’ to be made an OBE
Simon Daglish has raised around £10 million for causes including safe pregnancies and supporting wounded soldiers.
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Your support makes all the difference.The co-founder of the Walking With The Wounded military charity said he is “super chuffed and slightly amazed” to have been made an OBE.
Simon Daglish, 59, of Battersea, south-west London, who has raised around £10 million for various organisations including Tommy’s, the pregnancy charity, said: “It has been an amazing journey and I have been deeply honoured to be recognised.”
Speaking after collecting his honour for his charitable services from the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle, Mr Daglish said: “Ed Parker and I founded Walking With The Wounded in 2010 and we never really felt it would be as big as it is.
“Within a year we realised we had something that had caught the public’s imagination.
What we hope to do is to give people back that hope and let them know they can still achieve great things regardless of what has happened to you in life
“Then we realised we were really able to help people. We were able to help people who were devastated by war and give them new hope – that was the most amazing thing.
“When people join the Army, they are incredibly active and that is the nature of the gig but if you lose one of your legs or your arms you can feel that the world is over.
“What we hope to do is to give people back that hope and let them know they can still achieve great things regardless of what has happened to you in life.”
Mr Daglish, who is deputy commercial managing director at ITV, has walked unsupported to the North Pole and South Pole twice, rowed across the Irish Sea and completed the ultramarathon Marathon De Sables as part of his work with the military charity.
Through these expeditions he has “seen people have the confidence to know they can try to live a normal life”, adding it is “an extraordinary thing to see”.
Mr Daglish believes he may have “one more expedition” in him but will need to seek his wife Emma’s approval because such treks can be dangerous.
His work with Tommy’s, a pregnancy and baby loss charity that funds research into stillbirth, premature birth and miscarriage, has been driven by personal experience.
His youngest son Felix was born prematurely, suffered a brain haemorrhage and uses a wheelchair.
Mr Daglish added: “When Felix was born, he wasn’t healthy. I could not change what happened to Felix but I felt there had to be ways to stop it from happening to other people.
“It meant that our aim was to raise as much money as we possibly could for Tommy’s to fund research into premature births.”