.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
Tom
|
We would like to share with you some of the success stories in our bid to help 500 wounded, injured or sick ex-Service men and women into mainstream employment over the next 5 years. |
 CarolineEx Territorial Army
|
TomEx Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers Currently Telephonist, Office Assistant and Trainee Counsellor, National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire “The Poppy Factory gives ex-servicemen back their pride.” Tom joined the army as an electronics’ apprentice when he was 15 and served for 26 years, working all over the globe. When he left the army, he worked as a test engineer for the Channel Tunnel train, as a workshop manager and in aviation. “I never imagined I wouldn’t work but four years ago, I had to have my left leg amputated below the knee and suddenly I was unable to do the job I loved,” Tom explained. Tom had experienced trouble with his ankle since he broke it while serving in Oman in his early thirties.
After many operations, Tom found himself in a wheelchair and had to learn to walk again with a prosthesis. He was unable to go back to the work he loved as an engineer. “The work ethic you learn in the army never leaves you, so I kept looking for jobs. I thought about volunteering at the National Memorial Arboretum, but then discovered through BLESMA that the Arboretum had paid employment available. With the help of The Poppy Factory, my first year was sponsored and I got the job. I love the work. It’s a big change from engineering, there’s less pressure and it isn’t as much of a challenge but I have great work friends. I am training for a qualification in counselling and I hope, when fully qualified, that I’ll be able to help ex-Service men and women to overcome the difficulties they can face when leaving the army.”
“I never imagined I wouldn’t work but four years ago, I had to have my left leg amputated below the knee and suddenly I was unable to do the job I loved,” Tom explained. Tom had experienced trouble with his ankle since he broke it while serving in Oman in his early thirties. After many operations, Tom found himself in a wheelchair and had to learn to walk again with a prosthesis. He was unable to go back to the work he loved as an engineer. “The work ethic you learn in the army never leaves you, so I kept looking for jobs. I thought about volunteering at the National Memorial Arboretum, but then discovered through BLESMA that the Arboretum had paid employment available. With the help of The Poppy Factory, my first year was sponsored and I got the job. I love the work. It’s a big change from engineering, there’s less pressure and it isn’t as much of a challenge but I have great work friends. I am training for a qualification in counselling and I hope, when fully qualified, that I’ll be able to help ex-Service men and women to overcome the difficulties they can face when leaving the army.”
|
Tom joined the army as an electronics’ apprentice when he was 15 and served for 26 years, working all over the globe. When he left the army, he worked as a test engineer for the Channel Tunnel train, as a workshop manager and in aviation.