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Jonathan Cook -
Team Manager
Age
41. Married to Jackie with two children,
Chris (14) and Ben (12).
Head
of Early Career Development, Rolls Royce
plc.
This role is accountable for the attraction,
recruitment and development of all graduates,
modern apprentices and other trainees, world-wide
as well as leading the company's education
policies and liaison activities.
Jon had traveled extensively in Europe,
North America, Africa, China, South East
Asia and Australia and had led youth expeditions
to South America and to Africa with his
wife. Jon has always enjoyed mountain sports
and had been an active team member of the
Peak District Mountain Rescue Organization
until surgery for a long-standing back injury
in 1995 forced a less active role to be
taken up.
Jon had dropped all mountaineering
and sporting activities following the back
surgery until, in 1998, he agreed to partner
Miles as his sighted guide for the Sahara
Marathon. Initially Jon had agreed to help
Miles train for the event, with the mutual
benefit of Jon getting fit, but soon learned
that Miles had entered Jon for the race
billed as the "Toughest Footrace on
Earth". Running a marathon together
most Saturdays, Jon learnt the skills of
guiding and they successfully completed
the Marathon Des Sables together in 1999.
From then on Jon has regularly
led Miles on his adventures including:
January 2000 - Scottish winter mountaineering
and technical ice climbs, up to Scottish
Grade III.
April 2000 - Himalayan Expedition to 17,500
feet in the Everest region of Nepal.
June 2000 - Successful expedition to the
summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest
point.
July 2000 - Mont Blanc, France, as part
of the Highest and Deepest project.
In November 2000 Jon and
Miles set off from the coast of Antarctica
for the South Pole on foot, man-hauling
all their equipment in sleds. They overcame
all the difficulties of guiding, travel
and survival but, sadly, Miles had to be
evacuated with frostbite after a month.
Jon continued to the South
Pole, arriving on January 21 2001 after
an amazing, 730 mile, 62-day journey, and
proudly lifted the RNIB flag to celebrate
all that he and Miles had enjoyed together.
Most of 2001 was spent
thawing out but it did include Jon leading
another voluntary youth work program to
Ghana with his wife Jackie. This trip completed
a rural building project they started a
few years ago with their church youth group.
In January 2002, Jon and
Miles took completed the Siberia Ice Marathon
together.
Jon is looking forward
to the challenge of serving the team as
team manager as it travels around the world
on this amazing adventure and also to promote
the role of carers and enablers world-wide,
ensuring that the adventure leaves a positive
and impacting legacy in it's wake.
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