Yorkshire man walks from West Linton in Scotland to the National Memorial Arboretum in London in memory of armed forces and veteran suicides

A 70-year-old veteran is walking 420 miles in memory of all serving and veteran armed forces personnel who have died by suicide.

On August 29, Andrew Marriott set off on a long-distance walk from West Linton in Scotland to the Cenotaph in London’s Whitehall, where he is set to arrive this Friday (September 19).

The walk is called ‘The Lariam Tab’ as it remembers those who died by suicide after taking the anti-malarial tablet Mefloquine, commonly known as Lariam, and Tab means ‘forced march’ in Army slang.

On Wednesday (September 10), Andrew’s long time friend, Peter Cross, of Lowdham, who served with Andrew, joined him on a rainy walk from Edwinstowe to Lowdham, and from Lowdham to Bingham the following day, where the duo got to remember fellow soldiers and revive some old memories.

Andrew said that the walk is to commemorate all military and veteran suicides: “There are all sorts of agents that have driven suicide, and Larium is one that I'm very familiar with, but they're not remembered in any way because suicide is such a sensitive subject.

“The families who are affected by that, survivors of the event — widows, the children — we don't remember them and they've got nowhere to go on Remembrance Day, they're left out in the cold.

“It's what I call a form of remembrance no man's land, so the memory of these people who served as much as I served, as much as Peter served, they were prepared to do something, and then something happened to push them over the edge and we don't recognise their service.”

The veteran is collecting funds for the National Memorial Arboretum, which has new gardens and memorials, and hopes that ones day in the future, someone decided to do a memorial for military suicides at the arboretum.

People can donate to the cause online.

Andrew joined the army at 18, and has been stationed in several places across the globe, such as Kenya, Germany, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, and Canada during his 35 years of military service.

He and Peter met in the 2nd Battalion in Germany and later were stationed together in Northern Ireland where they underwent training in 1978.

Larium was developed by Walter Reed Army Institute as part of the U.S. Army Antimalarial Drug Development Project in the late 1960s.

The drug first came to market in 1984 following a collaboration with the U.S. Army, the World Health Organisation, and manufacturer Hoffmann-La Roche who further developed mefloquine and quickly became a popular drug both for military users and civilians — but many who have taken the drug have since suffered from serious side effects including disturbed sleep, nightmares, dizziness, loss of balance, mood swings, and depression.

In 2003, Andrew served in Sierra Leone to mentor their forces following a civil war, and in December 2002 he took the drug before being deployed and continues to experience the side effects himself, and to this day suffers from ‘quite horrific’ and ‘weird’ nightmares.

While serving in Sierra Leone, Andrew witnessed himself and other soldiers becoming less themselves and suffering side effects from the drug, and when tried to question a medic about other anti-malaria drugs, he was told Lariam was the only one.

It wasn’t after his own experiences that Andrew became aware of multiple people who have served in the army and have clearly been affected by the drug, and in particular the story of Army Major Cameron Quinn, who died by suicide in 2006 and is buried in West Linton, where the walk began.

Since he began the walk, Andrew has been carrying a handmade Lariam poppy with him and when he completes the walk, plans to gift it Cameron Quinn’s mother, who lives in West Linton, and who he met the day before embarking on the 420 mile walk.

The route will take in other commemorative sites associated with Lariam deaths in County Durham and Northampton, and later the HQ of Roche in the UK, the pharmaceutical company who marketed the drug.

Andrew has been covering around 20 miles a day, and has embraced the cold, rain and sun of UK’s weather, receiving support from family, friends and fellow veterans who share their stories with him.

“It is humbling and massively rewarding to be doing this walk as I am walking for all those people who don’t get a chance to walk and for their families.

“It feels like great validation of what we’re doing and spreading the word, so when you see somebody coming over the horizon, or in Peter’s case, absolutely soaked, it means the world and is a wonderful feeling as it helps you each step of the way.”

Having left the army and the military life, at the age of 55, Andrew had the chance to do a BA Hons degree in archaeology, which then evolved to doing a masters and a doctorate in archaeology.

Having walked past Nottinghamshire and reached the 300 miles mark in Bingham, Andrew said that he would be happy to return to the county as he has done a lot of archaeology work and research in the area.

“You've only got one life and I've been lucky as I've been given two chances to do things that I'm really passionate about.

“I loved the army life and then managed to do something that was really fulfilling and rewarding.”

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