A REAL James Bond has taken on his biggest challenge of raising hundreds of thousands for charity.
Mike Bates, 43, is a former marine And counter-terrorism intelligence officer, but has now turned his hand to something completely different to thank the hospital that saved his son’s life when he was born.
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Mike, from Leeds, Yorkshirespent 46 days in a solo boat rowing solo across the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands to Antigua, where he finished first in his category, collecting £170,000 in the process.
He has already donated £65,000 to charity and plans to use the money to buy six neonatal monitoring equipment for To lead Children’s Hospital after the team there rescued his son Gabe from postnatal meningitis in 2011.
The former soldier told The Sun Online: “It was brutal…it was worse than the commando course.
“There was tremendous weather nearby Christmas And New Year… in the last 48 hours I have rowed non-stop for 22 hours against a wind of 20 knots.
“I’ve always wanted to repay that debt [to the hospital]. I am very proud of what I have achieved.”
He added, “I wanted to serve my community.”
“The health service don’t buy their gear – charities buy it.”
Mike joined the Royal Marines in 2000 and was in training when 9/11 happened.
He was among the first British troops to enter Afghanistan in 2002, where his unit was involved in the search for infamous Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
He went on to serve Iraq in 2003 and Northern Ireland in 2004 before leaving the military after an illness.
However, Mike found that his love of “serving my country” continued and joined the Department of Defenseworking as a human intelligence specialist and leader in counter-terrorism and covert operations.
He added that his role was to “gather evidence directly against the most prominent targets” and field agents at the highest level of the intelligence field.
Operations already in the public eye in which Mike was involved include Operation Overt, which prevented planned aerial bombings in 2006, and Operation Pathway, which prevented bombings in New York in 2009.
The first saw authorities snare Londonborn bomb maker Abdullah Ahmed Aliwhich at the same time as the 7/7 bombers were there according to the BBC.
Mike left Intelligence in 2020 to begin his charity work.
He said, “I remain a patriot and proud of my career.
“We saved a lot of lives, there’s no doubt about that.”
Looking ahead, Mike is in the early stages of planning more charity events and writing an autobiography.
He also has a black belt Brazilian jiu jitsuwhom he hired while in the army, and runs his own jiu jitsu gym in Leeds.
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