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Jon is a great buddy and guide without whom the adventures would have remained dreams

Employed by Rolls-Royce plc, Jon currently works for the Society of British Aerospace Companies where he leads the society's work concerning all matters relating to skills and people management in the Aerospace industry.

Jon had travelled 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 work program to Ghana with his wife Jackie. This trip completed a rural building project they started a few years ago with their youth group.

In January 2002, Jon and Miles completed the Siberia Ice Marathon.

In October 2002 Jon set off again with Miles on another adventure. This time in the capacity of Team Manager also accompanying Caroline Casey who is also blind and, more importantly, Irish and also Mike MacKenzie who was left paralysed from the chest down following what he describes as a "bump" while working for an aid agency in Bosnia.

Jon's role was to guide, nurse, film, create web-site reports, secure finances, accommodation and flights and whatever else was necessary for this unlikely group to travel around the world using 80 different means of transport. The "80 Ways" adventure covered 15 countries over 92 days, included 72 public speaking engagements, met the Pope, kings, presidents along the way and raised hundreds of thousands for local charities world wide.

2003 was spent recovering and avoiding Miles as much as possible although Jon and Miles are now planning an ascent of Aconcagua, South America's highest peak, at the end of 2004.