The Baton Charity
The primary mission of The Baton
Charity is to raise and maintain
awareness within the British public
about the reality of life for service
personnel and their families in the
British Armed Forces and to ensure
that they are given the level of support
that they are rightfully due.
“The charity was launched in
November 2009 with a relay run
from RAF Lyneham to the National
Memorial Arboretum,” says founder
Alan Rowe MBE. “Since then we have
kept the run as an annual event. Since
repatriations were moved to RAF Brize
Norton the run has started from there.”
The run takes the charity through
Carterton, as part of it a ‘baton’, in the
form of the handle of a MERT stretcher
used on the battlefield in Afghanistan,
is carried.
“We run through love of our forces
and their families, past and present,
who won, preserved and protected the
freedoms that we all love, enjoy and
maybe take a little for granted,” Alan
says. “Freedom has never been free
and never will be.
“By leaving from the back of a
C-17 aircraft of 99 Sqn, so closely
associated with our fallen and injured,
we couldn't have started from a better
place, or finished at a better one than
at the NMA’s main Armed Forces
Memorial where this year we layed
our wreath at the Normandy Veterans
Memorial.
“This year we ran into the NMA the
day before the anniversary of D-Day
when so many young men gave their
life for the love of freedom.
Alan Rowe on his final stint
of the run
Lynn Little and Alan Rowe MBE laying a wreath at the
Repatriation Memorial Garden
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