Meet Our Team

My name is Mark Durrant – also known as Akela to the cubs! I started scouting with the 28th Hammersmith in 1977 at the tender age of 7 and it as been part of my life ever since. At 18, I became a leader, helping to run the cub pack amongst other things and have been the cub scout leader for the last 11 years. In total, I have been a leader for 35 years.

Scouting is something that I think every young person should have the opportunity to experience, and being able to pass on my own experience and skills to future generations is fantastic. Camping is the thing I’m particularly keen on, and I make sure the cubs get under canvas as much as possible!

Hi, my name is Neil – I started volunteering as an Assistant Cub Leader about 9 years ago as a parent. Both of my children (now at university) came through the group, and as a former cub/scout, I saw an opportunity to give back to the fantastic experience I had as a young person. I am currently the Section Leader for the Scout Troop, as well as Group Scout Leader.

My passion is hill walking and camping/bushcraft (lighting fires, making shelters etc.). I get up to Scotland and North Wales when I can to walk the hills, and really enjoy running the Expedition Challenge (a simpler version of Bronze DofE) for our older scouts. I’m also really interested in developing leadership and team skills with young people and many of our activities, whilst fun, are really geared towards this sort of development.

Volunteering with the 28th Hammersmith has been fantastic. You get to work with a great bunch of people, have a huge amount of fun and get rewarded when you see the young people succeed and have fun at the same time.