For 12 years, Murray Hambro knew exactly who he was: a soldier.
Then, in an instant, everything changed.
While deployed, Hambro endured an IED explosion that cost him both legs. After being medically discharged, he faced the loss of an identity he had built his life around, and the purpose and direction that came with it.
He had never planned to leave the military. Now he had to figure out what came next.
That search eventually led him to CrossFit. Now the owner of CrossFit Tigerlily, Hambro says CrossFit has been a huge part of his recovery — a place where he could rediscover what he was capable of, and perhaps most importantly, a place where he found a community that changed his life and supported him through profound grief when he lost his young son.
As the United Kingdom pauses this Remembrance Day to honor those who have served and sacrificed, Hambro’s story offers a deeply personal reflection on what comes after service, and how a community can help someone find a new mission when the one they built their life around is suddenly gone.