A FORMER Royal Navy medic has triumphed the world’s toughest ultra-marathon through the Sahara Desert to raise money for a charity close to his heart.

Barry ‘Baz’ Gorman, a former Royal Navy leading medical assistant from Okehampton, recently completed the Marathon des Sables by trekking 160-miles across the desert in Morocco.

Baz took on the epic six-day running challenge to raise funds for Walking with the Wounded — a charity which supports wounded ex-servicemen and women, disadvantaged by mental or physical injury.

Baz said that the Walking with the Wounded team had so far raised more than £160,000 by undertaking the Marathon des Sables.

Throughout the run, only water and medical support were supplied by the organisers, everything else that Baz and his team needed had to be carried with them on their backs.

The arduous event was divided over a number of days, around 20-miles on the first, 24 on the second, 20 on the third, a whopping 54-miles on day four, 26 on day five and a charity run of 4-miles on the last day.

Baz said the terrain varied every day ranging from sand dunes, dried out river beds and mountain ranges to cover, with the sand greatly reducing the speed over the ground.

He said that excellent medical facilities meant teams were well supported for medical ailments with blisters being a major problem, along with a number of more serious ailments ranging from heat strokes to heart attacks.

‘Water was the only other thing supplied during the challenge and was rationed on a daily basis — between 10 and 12 litres per day, given that most people were losing a litre of sweat an hour,’ said Baz.

‘My starting rucksack weight was over 15.5kg (34 lbs) and I reckon that I probably lost 5kg in physical weight.

‘The long phase of 54-miles, although full moon, had a lot of cloud cover testing our navigation skills at night, which we completed in 19 hours.

‘I was in the same team as Duncan Slater, who was the first double amputee to complete the event, as well as the team also to have the first ever European, Tom Evans, to come in the top 3!

‘Crossing the line gave a real sense of satisfaction and achievement and also the acknowledgment of how mental strength plays a huge part in maintaining discipline by staying focused, the ability to tolerate the pain of hot swollen feet, blisters and other ailments.’

Baz spent the majority of his service time with the Royal Marine Commando Units both in the UK and overseas and in both operational and peace times. Numerous injuries had prevented him from his goal of being awarded the coveted green beret — hence his chosen charity was Walking with the Wounded, to assist injured service personnel into civilian life.