33 Men Who Embody The True Meaning Of Strength
Strength isn’t just about muscle. It’s also about resilience, versatility, fearlessness, stamina, dedication, resolve and the ability to change hearts and minds based sheerly upon who you are. Want proof ? Look to the extraordinary men on these pages for inspiration
01\ Mark Ormrod
Every so often in an increasingly long and jaded journalism career, you interview someone who makes you go, ‘Bloody hell.’ On Christmas Eve 2007, Mark Ormrod trod on an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan and lost both legs, his right arm and more than half the blood in his body. Displaying the Royal Marines’ legendary cheerfulness in adversity, he quipped to a medic, ‘I guess my dancing days are over?’
Ormrod also twice asked for help to end his barely preserved life: from a comrade in the immediate aftermath and from his fiancée after a month in hospital. Instead, she helped him focus on the things he had to live for, and his daily progress, however small. Told he wouldn’t walk again for two years, if ever, he was upright on prosthetics six weeks after the explosion and mobile not long after. He stood to attention to receive his operational service medal and first-danced with his new bride at his wedding. Despite his fears, on neither occasion did he stack it.
Ten years after the explosion, Ormrod contested the Invictus Games in 2017, and again in 2018, winning a total of 11 medals (four gold). When he did stack it, training for a sponsored 5K in a video that went viral, he raised a staggering £250,000 for the charity Reorg, which supports the wellbeing of the military and emergency services through Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) and functional fitness. He completed a 1km swim, a 99.9-mile bike ride and a 24-hour ‘Rollathon’, having only taken up BJJ after the explosion. (He’s now a purple belt.) Last Christmas Eve, 15 years on to the day, he set a new world record for a one-arm 1km swim. At the time of writing, his JustGiving page is verging on £700,000.
An MBE for outstanding services to the Marines and veterans, Ormrod was given the freedom of his native Plymouth. There, a local artist and former serviceman painted a 12m mural of Ormrod – his hero – on the side of a house, with the words ‘Through struggle comes strength.’ Ormrod’s daughter dressed up as her dad – her hero – for World Book Day, in a beret, and drawn-on stubble. In February, he received a standing ovation from the Oxford Union after opposing the motion that this house would not fight for king and country: given the opportunity to serve again, h
