One of Plymouth’s most inspirational residents will be awarded with the highest honour the city can bestow.
Former Royal Marine Mark Ormrod MBE, will be awarded the title of Honorary Freeman of the City of Plymouth, after a formal decision was made at the Full Council meeting in November.
Mark’s life changed forever on Christmas Eve 2007 when he was blown up by an improvised explosive device whilst on a routine patrol in Afghanistan. He lost an arm and both legs above the knee and was twice pronounced dead at the scene.
Doctors originally told him that he would never walk again. But just five months later, he marched onto the parade ground on prosthetics to collect his tour of duty medal.
Today, Mark is an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker, a peak performance coach and the author of the award winning auto-biography Man Down. He’s won 11 medals, including four golds at the Invictus Games and is a source of daily inspiration for the thousands of people who follow him on Social Media.
He is a relentless charitable fund-raiser and earlier this month was awarded the Pride of Britain Fundraiser of the year award in recognition of the hundreds of thousands of pounds he has raised for charity by undertaking remarkable feats of endurance.
Mark said:
“As a born and bred Plymothian I am absolutely honoured to be awarded with the Freedom of the City. It’s been a pretty intense year for me and this is a perfect way to end it, by being recognised with the highest honour that my home city can bestow. Thank you so much.”
Only 45 individuals and organisations have been awarded Honorary Freedom of the City of Plymouth since 1917.
