We sat down recently with Steve Dredge of Status Code 14, to catch up on our latest sponsorship. We talked The Great Norse Run, the importance of advocating for your own mental health, and the team’s adventures on the Atlantic Ocean during their 60-day row in 2022.
Status Code 14 are an endurance team of former and serving police officers, who push past their own limits to raise money for Rock2Recovery – a specialist military and emergency responders’ charitable organisation for mental health support. In 2021 when they were looking for socially responsible sponsors for their endurance challenges, they came to us. Their ethos won us over, and we couldn’t resist the chance to be the main sponsors for their latest challenge – The Great Norse Run, with Run Wild Global and world-record holder Danny Bent.
Starting on 21 August, the run extends across ten days, with their six-man team running 25 miles a day for a total of 209 miles. They’ll be racing over Iceland deserts and joining an overall number of at least thirty runners, some of whom Steve himself recommended to run. “They’re looking for something physical to do to help themselves feel better and find purpose. To see someone change from start to finish is incredible,” Steve says. Every night, Steve and his team will be setting up camp in the Icelandic wild with their tents and food supplies, with just one day of rest planned to catch their breath. But as Steve says, for Status Code 14 it’s less about winning the race and more about the experience, “if we see a natural hot spring on the way, you know we’ll be enjoying that.”
The same was true back in 2022, when we sponsored the three-man team of Steve, Simon Lemon, and Matt Inglesby as they took part in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Competition with The World’s Toughest Row. Over the course of 60 days, they rowed their way across the Atlantic Ocean from La Gomera to Antigua. Steve and his team had their own water maker, all their own food to prepare on the boat, and miles upon miles of ocean. Every day they had just one hour off of the oars each, 40 minutes of which were dedicated solely to sleeping. To pull this off, they had the help of Anthony McCann from Dark Swan, who helped them reframe that hour not as their only chance at rest, but as the best hour of their whole day, the best sleep of their lives.
And those 40 minutes of rest powered them through adventures like swimming with whales –“You get in the water with them, and you can feel the echo location in your own body” – and stargazing on the open ocean – “There was no light pollution, so the sky was black as the ace of spades. I’ve seen white shooting stars, but these were purple, red, green.”
By the time the team reached Antigua they had raised £50,000 for Rock2Recovery and the Chestnut Appeal. Steve himself attests to the impact that money will have had. Back in 2017, Steve was diagnosed with PTSD, but he’ll be the first to say that he was struggling long before that. He describes the experience of reaching out for help as a relief in itself, “Just saying that I needed help, the weight was 20%, 30% lighter already.” The support he got with Rock2Recovery changed the way he saw the world – “It’s about taking care of yourself. Changing the way you see life for the rest of your life. When you get that support, you appreciate every little thing so much more.”
Just £1,000 raised for Rock2Recovery can fund the support of people like Steve, and their families. The Great Norse Run is going to help countless more in need of that support, before Steve and the team take on their fifth and final challenge – climbing Mont Blanc and paragliding all the way back to Chamonix.
We’re proud to be the main sponsor for Status Code 14 as they tackle this latest adventure with The Great Norse Run and embody our favourite CleanEarth value – tenacity.
Follow this link to support Steve directly and help raise money for Rock2Recovery.
All photos: Penny Bird.