Take Me Out star Lily-Mae Fisher becomes one of just seven women to earn coveted Royal Marines Green Beret
A FORMER contestant on TV dating show Take Me Out is one of seven women in seven years to have earned the coveted Commandos’ Green Beret.
Lily-Mae Fisher passed the gruelling All Arms Commando course that culminated in a 30-mile speed march with weapons and kit on Dartmoor.
The Royal Navy pilot said appearing on the hit ITV1 dating show, hosted by Paddy McGuinness, ten years ago was “one of the most surreal five days of my life”.
Lily-Mae added: “From filming in the UK to going to the ‘Isle of Fernando’ [Tenerife], then returning back to uni at the time, like nothing had happened.
“Something I’ll remember forever and what a fun few days it was!”
The 13-week All Arms Commando course is open to soldiers, sailors and RAF members who work with the Royal Marines.
If they pass they can wear a green beret and commando flashes.
But there are still no women in the Royal Marines — the UK’s elite naval infantry.
In a Freedom of Information request, the Ministry of Defence said only around 20 women had joined its pre-training fitness programmes since combat roles opened in 2018.
And “fewer than ten” progressed to the first phase of basic training at Lympstone, Devon.
A source said: “The MoD would give anything for a woman to pass its main 32-week course. But the regiment won’t give women special treatment.”
The Royal Navy said “All branches of the Marines are open to all regardless of gender.”
Last year, the regiment had 1,640 expressions of interest from women about joining up.
Normady hero dies
By Ed Southgate
ONE of the youngest D-Day commandos — who stormed Normandy at 18 — has died aged 98.
Norman Rose virtually crawled 12 miles to reach a port with 4,000 Nazis in 1944, explaining: “If you stood up, you were dead.”
He became a nuclear physicist.
Norman, awarded France’s Legion of Honour in 2016, was buried yesterday in Brecon.