Brian, a mentor from our Veterans Mentoring Service (VMS) was invited to host a breakout session at an event in Glasgow, organised by Unforgotten Forces, a consortium of armed forces and civilian charities working together to deliver support that boosts the health and wellbeing of veterans in Scotland age 60 and older. Representatives from Sacro’s VMS joined Combat Stress, SSAFA, Fighting with Pride, Scottish Government and others for the event.
Brian’s session was titled ‘Supporting Veterans with Chaotic Lifestyles’. In reality, it was much more than that as he gave a highly personal account of his own story and his journey from being supported by VMS to becoming a mentor himself. Brian gave the following account of the session in his own words:
“To be honest I was a bag of nerves. I had never spoken in public about anything, let alone my own story. I opened my presentation talking about the service VMS provides then opened the floor to questions. Along with my VMS colleagues, Gavin and Robert, we answered any questions the group gave us, before I moved on to my case study. I did this one myself, and for two reasons. Firstly, because I am proof that the service we provide with VMS is effective and we can achieve our goal of enabling veterans to go on and live an independent and sustainable life. Secondly, I believed it would be good for me as a person and help me to grow and that’s the result I achieved. It was quite liberating to me, being able to turn my negatives into a positive to help others.
“It was clear my story touched a lot of the audience. As I looked through the room, I could see a lot of people with tears in their eyes and the reception I got at the end with comments like ‘how powerful my story is’. I sat back down on a high and was met with many handshakes and conversations with members of other agencies. We broke for lunch and on return, I repeated my presentation to the second half which again was met with the same reactions.
“All in all, it was a good day, once I got past the nerves. I achieved what I set out to achieve”.
