Lance Ranger, Attendus Company AG director, is a practicing solicitor who founded the Ranger Foundation Trust. This article will take a closer look at the work of the Ranger Foundation Trust and some of its past projects.
Born in 1960 in the United Kingdom, Lance Ranger attended Colfe’s School in London and went on to study law at Wolverhampton Polytechnic, graduating in 1983. He subsequently qualified as an English solicitor, practicing in the city of London before moving to Switzerland permanently.
In 1992, Mr Ranger became an inhouse lawyer at Attendus Company AG, Switzerland, a company he owns today. In 2000, he promoted the launch of Curatus Trust Company on the island of Mauritius, an organisation that has grown from a single-person enterprise to a thriving international family office and trust company with more than 15 full-time staff.
Following the birth of his son, Oliver, who was born extremely prematurely, Lance Ranger was inspired to help other disabled children after his positive experiences with Oliver. He helped to raise funding and sponsorship for several projects across the United Kingdom and Mauritius, launching the Ranger Foundation Trust in April 2008.
The Ranger Foundation Trust was created to help physically disabled children living on the island of Mauritius through the delivery of a National Curriculum education, as well as Conductive Education where necessary. When Lance Ranger opened an associate office on the island, he quickly became acutely aware of the lack of care available locally for children with disabilities and was determined to help.
To raise vital funding, Lance Ranger embarked on an ambitious ski walk trip to the South Pole, which he described as ‘extraordinary’ and a combination of physical discomfort, uncertainty and endurance, with an unexpectedly difficult mental element.
Mr Ranger was joined by a small group of experienced explorers: a German, two Americans and an Irishman who had all conquered the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. Prior to the trip, none of the team members knew each other. Mr Ranger described it as a ‘major relief’ to discover that they all got on so well, not realising until after the trip that the group were extremely nervous about supporting an absolute novice. However, the trip proved a huge success, and Lance Ranger said it was a great personal satisfaction for him to complete the trip in great shape and eager for more.
As it transpired, Lance Ranger was the only member of the team who had trained on skis while pulling a sled, which was specially weighted and shipped over from the United States. Mr Ranger trained for some six months in total, enabling him to pull a fully-laden sled of 57 kilos in extremely challenging conditions, working to improve his endurance and stamina over all kinds of terrain. He started with muddy grass, which proved extremely sticky and difficult to navigate, working his way up to deep snow, which he found even harder to tackle as the sled would sink in, weighing even more as he pulled it along.
By the time Lance Ranger and his teammates reached the Antarctic plateau, which is some 3,000 meters above sea level, he said he was much fitter than he had ever been in his entire life, indicating that the actual trip was a real pleasure for him most of the time.
Surprisingly, Mr Ranger found that he was actually too hot during the first few days of his adventure as he was wearing one too many layers, making him sweat far too much, with the perspiration freezing in his fleece-lined jacket and turning it rock hard. Lance Ranger concedes that at the time he was pretty uncomfortable, but after two days he adjusted his gear and found he was colder but fine.
The group developed a good rhythm of activity, skiing for eight hours per day. During each hour they skied for 50 minutes, before taking a 10 minute break, slumped on their sleds facing away from the wind. It was too cold to sit in the open air for more than 10 minutes, with the wind reaching a gruelling 40 mph at times. It took them eight days to complete the trip, covering 110 kilometres in total, in one of the most inhospitable environments on earth.
Since establishing the Ranger Foundation Trust, Mr Ranger has remained steadfast in his commitment to raising awareness and funding for the trust’s projects. In addition to his sponsored trek to the South Pole in 2007, Lance Ranger has spearheaded several other ambitious fundraising projects, including a sponsored trek to the North Pole in 2009; participating in the 500 kilometre Finnmarksloepet dog sled race in 2011; and an attempted crossing of Greenland in 2013, which had to be abandoned when he and his team were hit by two Arctic hurricanes.
By highlighting the predicament of disabled children on the island of Mauritius, Lance Ranger hopes to be able to reach the trust’s next economic target of financing the construction of a purpose-built school for existing and other physically disabled students. The project is ongoing but has already culminated in the successful construction of the north wing of the building.
