Royal Marines Veterans Take On The Infamous 9-mile Speed March
Royal Marines veterans, take on the infamous 9-mile speed march. The event was held at Spean Bridge in Scotland, in aid of The Royal Marines charity, who are celebrating 75 years with their work.
Left to Right: Lt Col Gaz Veacock RM, Mne Ross Cooney RMR, Capt X RM, Gunner Daz Adams RA, Cpl Andy Dunkin RM,
Mne Chris Thrall RM, LCpl Jase Paterson RM, Cpl Rick Coulson RM, Cpl Steve Boden RM, WO1 Mac McMillan RM and Ralphy (the dog)
Chris Thrall
I’m proud of the boys. At fifty-plus years, we demonstrate the Royal Marines Commando ethos, that we never leave a man (or woman) behind. Be proud to talk about mental-health, because Royal Marines do!
Royal Marines veterans take on the infamous 9-mile speed march
By Cpl (Rtd) Steve Boden RM
An RMA North Devon led team of both current and former Royal Marines recently completed the Spean Bridge Train Station – Achnacarry Speed March in support of RMA – The Royal Marines Charity.
It was also completed to raise awareness of the ongoing Mental Health challenges faced within the RM and across all the Armed Forces. This iconic route was first undertaken by Commando’s during WWII, whereby when individuals arrived at the Spean Bridge Train Station, they had to complete the 7-mile (11Km) route to Achnacarry Castle with equipment and weapons, within an hour. Those who were unsuccessful were returned to their unit the following day. This speed march was not only relevant 80 years ago, but also remains key today were a comparable march (9-mile) is completed as one of the Commando Tests at CTCRM. It remains a rite of passage with gaining the coveted green beret.
Spean Bridge Station – Achnacarry Speed March
https://rma-trmc.org/spean-bridge-station-achnacarry-speed-march/
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My 200-Mile Run To Raise Awareness Of Veterans Homelessness
RUNNING HOMELESS FOR CHRISTMAS
On the 22nd December 2020 I will be running home-less for Christmas. I will run 200 miles around the Brickfields running track in Plymouth – that’s 800 laps – to raise awareness of the UK’s homelessness problem and funds for the Baton veterans charity. I’ve picked a running track to represent the boredom, monotony and endless drudge of being street homeless. I’ve picked Christmas to symbolise the loneliness and lack of empathy that socially excluded people face – not just during the festive season but throughout their lives.
My Life In The Death Zone | Nirmal ‘Nimsdai’ Purja MBE | #119
My Life In The Death Zone
Transcript snippet from ‘My Life In The Death Zone’ podcast
Chris and Nims
C – Nims, how are you brother?
N – I’m good Chris, how are you doing?
C – Wonderful! As I was saying before, one day we can meet in Nepal and do some climbing, and we won’t have to speak over Zoom.
N – Well, we’re adapting, hopefully next year my man. This is positive I’m sure.
C – Yeah, I want to stand on the top of Mount Everest with you.
N – We’re going to make it happen buddy, we’re going to make it happen. ‘
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Forty Nights: My Escape from Crystal Meth Hell
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How to Write a Memoir
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My QUADRUPLE Ironman Challenge!
Dear Friends
My name is Chris Thrall. I’m an author, adventurer and former Royal Marines Commando (link to my bio ). Last year I ran an ultramarathon a day from John O’Groats to Land’s End. This year, on September 8th 2019, I will complete a quadruple ironman distance triathlon.
That’s a 9.6-mile swim, a 450-mile cycle and a 104-mile run – in seven days
I will be highlighting the alarming rate of veterans suicide and raising vital funds for Rock 2 Recovery, a veterans’ mental health charity.
A quadruple ironman distance triathlon will present quite a challenge. I’m not a natural swimmer. The furthest I’ve ever cycled is fifty miles. I’ve not run more than four miles in training as I’m in constant chronic pain from degenerative spine damage and a host of other injuries. But no matter what hardship I endure, it will never be as much as some of our veterans are going through.
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#15 What It’s Like To Be Shot – a Royal Marines Sniper Contact
In this podcast I discuss what it’s like to be shot at (with a Kalashnikov AK-47) by a sniper whislt serving in Northern Ireland as a Royal Marines Commando.
‘Serving in the Royal Marines was easy compared with being a crystal meth addict’
Chris Thrall advises people on how to quit drugs
By AMY JONES The Sun
WHEN handsome young Marine Chris Thrall left the Forces to move to Hong Kong, he expected to make his fortune.
But within months he was homeless, alone and fighting an enemy more dangerous than anything he faced serving his country — crystal meth.
Chris almost lost his sanity and his life after becoming addicted to crystal meth, also known as ice. Now he supports others how to quit drugs and has written a bestselling book, Eating Smoke, about his experience.
Click HERE to read about how Chris’s life was before he quit drugs and showed others how to quit drugs.
He says: “I loved my time in the Marines and the challenges that came with each day. But looking back, it was nothing compared to what I faced at the height of my addiction to crystal meth.”
Sadly, Chris is one of a growing number of the drug’s victims.
Meth is twice as addictive as heroin and more damaging to health than crack cocaine.
After ravaging communities across Asia, Australia and the US, it is now on Britain’s streets, sold for as little as £10 a gram — which is enough to keep a user on a permanent high for nine days.
Chris, from Plymouth, never dabbled in drugs during his time in the Royal Marine Commandos. He joined up at 18 and served seven years, including stints in Northern Ireland, before quitting to launch a marketing firm in Asia.
He said: “I loved being a Marine. I was doing something for my country and earning better money than friends who’d gone to university. But I got involved in an exciting business venture and went to Hong Kong to make my millions.”
Unfortunately, the venture failed and his company went bust.
Chris, now 42, says: “It was hard. I had racked up a lot of debt and suddenly I was jobless.”
He found a job at a Hong Kong firm marketing computer chips after answering an ad.
A few months after joining, Chris walked in on a colleague in the toilets smoking meth, which can also be snorted or injected.
He recalls: “He offered me some and I thought, ‘Why not? How harmful can it be if he’s smoking it in the middle of the day?’ I took two puffs.
“Back at my computer, I suddenly felt this rush. It was like nothing I’d ever felt. I knew I was addicted straight away. The next day I wanted more.”
At first crystal meth — scientific name methamphetamine — made Chris feel fantastic and there was no shortage of dealers.
He says: “I could pick it up on the way home from work. It was as easy as buying milk.”
But things soon got out of control.
Chris said: “I was getting nowhere in the office so I got a job as a nightclub doorman in Wan Chai — the red light district. I thought if I worked at night, I wouldn’t be able to take drugs.
“But that soon went out the window. My addiction was life consuming. I was on it constantly. It overloaded my brain and I began to lose the plot. You’re incredibly tired so you hallucinate. On top of that, psychosis starts to develop. I found myself wondering how to quit drugs.”
FOR THE FULL ARTICLE IN THE SUN, CLICK HERE
Chris Thrall is the author of Eating Smoke: One Man’s Descent into Drug Psychosis in Hong Kong’s Triad Heartland– a bestselling true story. He now gives his advice on how to quit drugs.
Chris will shortly be writing a post on how to quit drugs
To hell and back: An expat’s life on the edge in Hong Kong
A former drug user publishes his memoir of working for the 14K Hong Kong triads
In the 1990s, former Royal Marine Chris Thrall found himself being sucked into a downward spiral in Hong Kong, when his work as a Wanchai bouncer drew him into the world of triads and crystal meth addiction. Now 42, off drugs and pursuing a new life, Thrall reveals how he saw the end — and found a future — in his autobiography “Eating Smoke.”
CNNGo: Considering your addiction, how were you able to remember things so clearly?
Chris Thrall: Using crystal meth and the psychosis I experienced didn’t affect my memory. I think when you’re young and finding yourself in the world –- especially in such a memorable setting as Hong Kong -– you remember an awful lot, particularly the pertinent things like relationships you had with people and the crazy things you get up to.
“Eating Smoke” is a collection of those memories. I also experienced a great deal of highs, lows and trauma. Incidents you don’t forget in a hurry. There’s probably also a lot I don’t remember and probably just as well.
Drug-induced Paranoia on the Mean Streets of Hong Kong
Life with the Triads
Author Chris Thrall
The secrets of Hong Kong’s underworld are revealed in the soon-to-be-released Eating Smoke. Hannah Slapper speaks to author Chris Thrall to separate fact from fiction
In 1995, UK-born Royal Marine Chris Thrall came to Hong Kong to make his fortune. Once here, his business went bankrupt, and a series of unsuccessful jobs led him to work in Wan Chai as a doorman for one of the biggest triad groups, the 14K. Dwelling in the criminal underworld drove him to drugs; he became addicted to crystal methamphetamine, and suffered from clinical psychosis. Now, 15 years on, he is ready to tell his story.
So Chris, how much contact did you really have with the triads?
I had contact with them every day. One of my fellow doormen was a 6’7”assassin that used to be smuggled into China to do a hit on someone and smuggled back into Hong Kong. So from that perspective I was quite up close and personal. I won’t give too much away in regard to my own involvement; I think that would ruin it for the reader. It was a phenomenal insight into the underworld. It could be incredibly traumatic.
What made you want to write this book?
There were a number of reasons. Firstly I think it gives a fascinating insight into a part of life not many people get to know about. One of which is referred to as the foreign triad, which is a Hong Kong crime syndicate made up entirely of expats, who operate using the exact same clandestine methods as the Chinese gangs do, such as communicating with secret hand signs and gestures. Another reason I wrote it is because I thought it would be interesting for people to read a book from the point of view of someone who is slowly slipping into psychosis and mental illness from using drugs. It’s not exactly an area that many people get an opportunity to experience firsthand, and then get to write about afterwards. Thirdly, because I think I had a kind of innate desire to
do something creative and prove myself as a writer.
You claim it to be true – did it all happen exactly as you say?
Exactly. I had a friend say to me a while back on a night out – why didn’t you write the book as fiction? And I said to him “Why would I want to take a story that is so bizarrely insane, it’s got to be one of the craziest ones ever told, and then tell everyone it wasn’t true?” I didn’t have to flower it up, I didn’t have to add anything.
What kind of trauma did you experience?
To descend into mental illness is an incredibly sad thing for anyone to have to go through. I can’t say too much about it, but in the club I worked I was set up to be murdered one night, by these foreign triads that I mentioned. And there was that cold dark moment of reality where you realise you’re about to die. I actually turned it around, but I’m not the sort of person that is easily intimidated.
How much do you think Hong Kong is to blame for making you the way you were?
It probably doesn’t help that Hong Kong has the most hardcore serious drug known to man available in abundance on every street corner, if you know where to look. Hong Kong really brought home to me how cultures can differ immensely. It’s about the philosophy and the psychology. And the Asian psychology is so ancient; it’s so different to the West.
How did you go about getting your story published?
I was very fortunate. I came across this guy called Tom Carter who put together an incredible book called China: Portrait of a People. I came across this article he wrote called Down and Out in Hong Kong and I sent him a message explaining that I actually was down and out in Hong Kong and asked if he would be interested in reading my book. He called me the day after I’d sent it to him saying he’d already got me a publishing deal. It was an incredible moment. The thought that 15 years ago I was that man you cross over the street to avoid, and now I’ve got all these people looking forward to my book being released. It’s a wonderful feeling.
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To watch the book trailer on Youtube click HERE
Eating Smoke: One Man’s Decent into Drug Psychosis in Hong Kong’s Triad Heartland – the Maverick House Book Trailer
“Chris Thrall left the Royal Marines to find fortune in Hong Kong, but following a bizarre series of jobs ended up homeless and in psychosis from crystal meth.
He began working for the 14K, a notorious crime syndicate, as a nightclub doorman in the Wan Chai red-light district, where he uncovered a vast global conspiracy and the ‘Foreign Triad’ – a secretive expat clique in cahoots with the Chinese gangs.
Alone and confused in the neon glare of Hong Kong’s seedy backstreets, Chris was forced to survive in the world’s most unforgiving city, hooked on the world’s most dangerous drug.
Engaging, honest and full of Chris’s irrepressible humour, this remarkable memoir combines gripping storytelling with brooding menace as the Triads begin to cast their shadow over him. The result is a truly psychotic urban nightmare …”
To keep updated and support Eating Smoke on Facebook, click HERE
To order Eating Smoke click HERE
To watch the book trailer on Youtube click HERE