Karl Hinett is taking on another major fundraising challenge and shares his story of injury in the military, which he’s used as motivation to fundraise for others in need.
Originally from Tipton, Karl grew up inspired by tales of friendship and adventure from his grandmother who had a career in the military herself. Having never really travelled or challenged himself, he joined the Army and loved it.
Serving on his first deployment at aged 18 in 2005 in Basra, Iraq, five months in Karl was part of a hostage rescue operation. Things started to go badly wrong and a full riot broke out.
“The rioters were in control, and we were unable to retreat” Karl shares. “The Warrior’s viewing sights were shattered by petrol bombs, grenades, bricks and shrapnel, at one point they were on top of the Warrior dousing it in petrol. As we couldn’t view properly, we were forced to open our hatch to see outside the tank – right at the moment the petrol bomb was thrown.”
Karl experienced 37% burns and after 10 days in an induced coma, he woke up in Selly Oak Hospital intensive care. He spent around five years in and out of hospital having multiple surgeries to aid his recovery. He still has surgeries now.
“I was motivated by the work of the doctors and nurses, who inspired me to live life to the fullest” he shares.
“I was on the burns unit with other people who had been injured, all civilians, including children. It was seeing those that inspired me to fundraise and help others.”
Karl also used running as a form of therapy, which soon became the basis of many of his challenges. These have included racing in the Amazon jungle raising money for the Selly Oak burns unit, travelling to mainland Antarctica and completing both the marathon and 100km events, climbing Mt Everest raising money for the charity Walking With the Wounded, running a marathon on the floating ice cap in the North Pole in temperatures as low as -25, winning silver at the Invictus Games Sydney in 2018, speaking on behalf of the charity Scar Free Foundation who are advancing medical science in hospitals for scar free recovery, and trekking 514km across the Artic as part of team Project Fire & Ice with Aldo Kane, Brian Wood and Jason Fox to raise money for SSAFA and raise awareness of mental health.
Karl’s next challenge will be 15 endurance challenges to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Fisher House, who provide free ‘home away from home’ accommodation for military families when their loved ones are receiving treatment in hospital. You can find out more and support that here.
As well as his inspired fundraising, Karl is a public speaker, sharing his experiences as an Iraq Veteran and burns survivor. You can find out more through his website here.
You can also see his story in pictures on TikTok here.
