Meet the British Team
Our team consists of four Falklands veterans from various units and one of our corporate sponsors.
Photo by Mark Brightwell
Will Kevans - Expedition Leader
Will served with The Welsh Guards for 3 years, during which time he fought in the Falklands. He served in 2 Company as a rifleman and runner. They were attached to 3 Commando Brigade after the rest of the battalion was hit on the Sir Galahad. They advanced to Mt Harriet with 40 Commando but got pinned down in a minefield under fire from artillery from the Argentinians and rounds falling short from the Royal Navy bombardment. The attack on Harriet was successful, and they subsequently participated in a heliborne assault on Sapper Hill. The Argentines surrendered shortly after. Will served for 2 years with 63 Para Squadron as part of the 5 Airborne Brigade.
After the army, Will became a cartoonist and illustrator, working on BBC's Dennis the Menace, Scooby Doo and as an editorial cartoonist for the Telegraph. A keen musician, he also had moderate success as a singer-songwriter. He was playlisted on Radio 2, and he also had a record deal with Judy Collins' Wildflower Records in New York.
Will's creativity led him to write a graphic novel about the Falklands conflict, 'My Life in Pieces - the Falklands War', which served as the basis for a BBC Panorama documentary that took him and his comrades back to the battlefields they had fought on as teenagers. The cartoons within the book were animated by Will for the TV show.
Will is a keen mountaineer and has organised several charity expeditions across the Falklands for the documentary, as well as a reconciliation climb with Argentine veterans in the Alps, and three guided trips across the Pyrenees, the Allied escape route, Chemin de la Liberté, for Care after Combat, and with The Royal Marines charity.
Will now works as a Senior Games Designer for Aris Technologies in Oxford.
Gary Fortuin left school in 1978 and at 15 he joined the army as a boy soldier in the royal engineers. On completion of boy service he volunteered for airborne forces and joined 9 Para Sqn RE in 1979. He completed a search tour in Northern Ireland from 1980 to 1981.
Gary went to the Falklands in 1982, where his troop was attached to 2SG. He and two other sappers were attached to the recce platoon on an ill-fated 4-day fighting patrol with the mission to locate and destroy 2 Argentina artillery pieces and a radar system. On the last day of the patrol they were compromised and, for approximately 3 km, were under artillery and small-arms fire where he conducted first aid to the casualties whilst still under contact.
In late 1982 he was posted to Germany with 28 amph regt re then in 1985 he became an instructor at 1 TRG regt re. He was then asked to join the SASC in 1987. He left the army in 2003 as QMSI.
By chance he joined the security circuit doing 4 years in Iraq, 3 years in Nigeria and 7 years in Kazakhstan. On returning to the UK he found it very difficult to find a job that matched his skill set but, once again by chance, he found a position that fulfilled him. He now works as a forest school teacher working with children, initially with primary-age kids but more recently with secondary-school kids in one of the most deprived areas in the east Midlands.
Stephen joined the Army in 1975, and left Sandhurst in 1977, having been commissioned into the 7th Gurkha Rifles (7GR). Following a tour of duty in Belfast on attachment to a British battalion, he joined 7GR in Brunei for a spell of jungle soldiering. From there, he went to Hong Kong, and in April 1982 found himself heading back to the U.K. to join the battalion. He made his way onto the QE2 and was given the task of putting together a Heavy Machine Gun platoon. After a few weeks of traipsing around getting cold and wet, and not a little tired of lugging .50 calibre Brownings over miserable terrain, he celebrated the end of hostilities with the locals in Goose Green. He saw little action, other than being on the receiving end of artillery barrages.
Following the Falklands campaign, Stephen spent some time on ERE before returning to the Battalion as adjutant, from which position he resigned, and left the Army. He moved to the USA and became a security consultant, ending up working for an oil drilling company. He returned to the U.K. in 2017, and through his interest in hill walking, became a member of the local Mountain Rescue Team, a volunteer organisation which gave him a great deal of satisfaction in using some of the skills he learned while serving. He sees the Peaks for Peace expedition as an excellent way for old soldiers to reunite, away from politics, and share a sense of purpose and team spirit.
Chris joined 2 PARA in 1974. He went to D Coy, Support Coy and Motor Transport where he parachuted into, travelled around, and area cleaned Norway, Belgium, Malaysia, Singapore, Gibraltar, Northern Ireland, Kenya, Berlin and West Germany. In 1981 he wanted a proper soldiering challenge so he asked to go to Patrols Platoon. His job was to secretly parachute into an area then tab considerable distances to mark drop zones for the rest of the Battalion when they dropped, usually directly onto an airfield, to practice hostage release scenarios.
1982 interrupted this and gave Chris’ Platoon the chance of real top-quality soldiering in the Falklands. His Platoon marked the start line for B coy attack towards Boca House near Goose Green. He was lead scout of patrols. He and 10 others took part in a daytime assault on the schoolhouse. They advanced about 800 metres with covering fire from machine guns while being shot at with Mortars, Artillery, all sorts of automatic fire and several 6 round bursts of Bofors anti-aircraft fire used in the ground role.
Chris then saw several tours of Belize. He became a caving instructor and was given the nickname of Jungle Jackson. Since then, he has mainly been a leadership and personal development instructor with junior soldiers at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, using caving and climbing to build their core values. For 10 years he led expeditions for a company called World Challenge, taking 16 to 18 year old A level students to South America and trekking up to 5000 metres in most parts of the Andes. Now retired, Chris is still caving and potholing.
Gary Fortuin
Stephen Crowley
Chris (Jacko) Jackson
Eliot Ely
Eliot is a third year photography student at Bath Spa University with a lifelong love of walking and the outdoors. Growing up by the coast, he has spent much of his life exploring landscapes on foot, which has strongly shaped both his personal interests and his creative practice.
Alongside his studies, Eliot works across photography and video, with a particular focus on documenting outdoor experiences, endurance challenges, and the people who take part in them. He is especially interested in telling honest, human stories in demanding environments, using visual storytelling to capture both the physical challenge and the quieter moments that happen along the way.
Eliot is looking forward to taking part in the expedition and contributing to the project through his photography and film work. For him, the challenge is an opportunity to document a meaningful journey, work closely with the people involved, and create a visual record of the experience that reflects both the landscape and the individuals taking part.
Support Team
Neil Heritage - Founder of Climb 2 Recovery
Neil was in the British Army for eleven years serving operationally in Bosnia, Northern Ireland & Iraq. In November 2004, whilst working as part of a bomb-disposal team in Iraq, Neil was the victim of a suicide bomber. Both of Neil’s legs had to be amputated above the knee, which at the time made him the most seriously injured soldier to survive the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was told that he would never walk again, but persevered despite this and endured a 5-year rehabilitation period. Remarkably, he learnt how to walk, went back to work and has since succeeded in several sporting and extreme challenges.
Neil has sought out adventure at every turn. He has competed in triathlons, learned to ski and qualified as a scuba diving instructor. He took part in an epic 51-day Atlantic row as part of the first disabled crew to complete this unsupported challenge. A major achievement of Neil’s was becoming the first double above knee amputee to summit the iconic Matterhorn in the Alps, a 4478-metre mountain of technical climbing nature. He reached the summit on his third attempt in 2020, following two unsuccessful attempts in 2016 and 2018.
Neil founded Climb 2 Recovery (C2R) in 2016. C2R supports wounded soldiers in their rehabilitation. The organisation uses climbing and adventurous challenge as a springboard to recovery. C2R has helped numerous injured soldiers to find new careers and ambitions after service, by enabling them to gain qualifications in the outdoor industry, where they can apply their skills, expertise and inspire others.
Dr Barry McKenna - Expedition Doctor
Barry had a career as an aero engineer and a soldier before retraining as a doctor. Since then he has concentrated on General Practice and Emergency Medicine and now works as a portfolio GP and Expedition Doctor. He is currently the Medical Director for World Extreme Medicine.
Barry is a medical advisor for WEM as well as having a passion for logistical planning especially for Ocean/kayak based expeditions to help medics prepare for trips in a structured way. His most recent trip was as medic for a veterans unsupported kayak expedition of the Inside Passage from Washington to Alaska.
Joe Winch - CEO & Chief Instructor of Climb 2 Recovery
Joe served for over twenty years as a Royal Marines Commando Officer, leading teams through some of the world’s most demanding environments. His career, and the injuries that followed, shaped a deep understanding of resilience, recovery, and the human capacity to rebuild.
After life changing trauma and complex PTSD, Joe found healing not through the system, but through connection — to nature, to others, and to himself. That experience inspired his work with Climb 2 Recovery, where he now leads a community helping veterans rediscover purpose and belonging through climbing, trust, and shared challenge.
A qualified Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor, International Mountain Leader, and trauma informed facilitator, Joe is passionate about bridging the worlds of adventure, psychology, and peer-led recovery. His approach is grounded in humility, integrity, and the belief that true healing happens not in isolation or diagnosis, but in relationship and reconnection.
Nick Lynes - Corporate Sponsor
Nick is Co-CEO and Co-Founder at Flawless, a filmmaking technology platform that allows filmmakers to deliver cinematic-quality films, faster. Nick is a delivery focussed, commercial technologist with over 20 years experience in the e-commerce space. Previously a director at a FTSE 100 company, he developed and led APAC for a leading e-commerce operator, with revenues in excess of $1 billion.
Sam Marshall
Sam Marshall is the founder of Monkey Mountaineering, a veteran-owned UK adventure company specialising in high-altitude trekking and mountaineering. After nearly three decades in the British Army as an aircraft engineer and officer, he brings his passion for the outdoors and his background in leadership and risk management into creating safe, sustainable and life-changing mountain experiences.
Drawing on decades of expedition experience, including climbs on every continent, Sam leads Monkey Mountaineering with the same planning discipline and duty of care he learned in uniform. His focus is simple: deliver high-altitude adventures where people feel supported, looked after and capable of more than they imagined. Supporting Peaks4Peace aligns perfectly with that ethos, veterans empowering veterans through challenge, camaraderie and the restorative power of the mountains.
Ken Chappell
Ken Chappell was a friend who fought alongside Will Kevans in the Falklands with the Welsh Guards. Ken was aboard the Sir Galahad when it was hit and was deeply affected by what he experienced. His brother Steve later joined 2 company and 4 platoon, Will's old platoon, after the conflict and served with distinction, being awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal whilst in service. Steve and Ken were inseparable as brothers. Ken was an outstanding mountaineer and climbed Kilimanjaro with Steve and also the Pyrenees with a group of Royal Marines and Will. It was beyond belief for Steve when Ken was diagnosed with terminal cancer in early 2025 and sadly passed away a few months later in July. Ken was pencilled in for the expedition as one of the climbers, so the news was especially sad for the whole team. His spirit will be carried with the team on the mountain, and he will be mentioned during the official ceremony at the start of the event on the 5th of January.
Simon Weston CBE
Simon has been a steadfast ambassador and supporter of our charity endeavours since the start. As a Welsh Guards veteran, Will served alongside him in the Falklands conflict. Simon suffered from extensive life-changing injuries whilst on board the Sir Galahad and, despite his horrific burns, his personal triumph has been an inspiration in personal recovery and a mentor for so many who have suffered the physical and mental traumas and adversity of war.