The power of solid collaboration and ‘out of the box’ thinking can never be over-emphasised when working towards a truly positive, life-changing outcome for a beneficiary.
In offering life-long support for the Royal Marines Family, RMA – The Royal Marines Charity’s Health & Wellbeing team has established solid and working relationships with many other military charities, one of which is SSAFA. Such close collaboration can prove the ultimate life-saver for someone in desperate need.
Alan was a Royal Marines Commando for 25-years and so no stranger to operating under the harshest of conditions and having to tough it out no matter what.
Now retired, he lives by himself in a small market town in Devon and, as a friendly outgoing Scot, had been enjoying life to the full – until an excruciating and unrelenting pain in his shoulder began pushing him to the brink of deep depression. With no tangible diagnosis and unable to do even the simplest of tasks or sleep without intense discomfort, he withdrew into a dark hole, ‘vegetating’ all day in a chair, not wanting to socialise, even with his family.
Then along came Val. She is an experienced volunteer Caseworker and Branch Support Co-Ordinator with SSAFA Devon who, together with RMA – The Royal Marines Charity Health, assessed Alan’s exceptional circumstances and the serious impact on his overall well-being. It was agreed that support towards accessing medical intervention was urgently needed in helping to alleviate the chronic situation that was starting to severely impact any meaningful quality of life for Alan.
Having received treatment, he started slowly to recover, but having been in such distress for so long, had lost his confidence – he was reluctant to start driving again and was struggling to become part of the outside world once more.
No longer his Caseworker but living in the same town and both being members of their local Armed Forces Veterans Breakfast Club, they remain friends; if Alan needs a bit of advice or support, he knows where to go! And this is how another decision put the final piece in the jigsaw and started to turn Alan’s life around.
After accompanying him to an appointment, Val decided that coffee was needed and where better than the Gordon Messenger Centre at Lympstone. A little apprehensive as to where she was taking him, Alan found himself in this well-used facility that offers a busy programme of events and activities for the Royal Marines Family and the wider military community.
While Val was making the coffee, he started chatting with a couple of other veterans who happened to be at the drop-in cafe that same morning. The rest, as they say, is history.
Val says: “Alan had lost of a lot of confidence and, although he had reluctantly begun driving locally again to get shopping, was nervous about going further afield. On our way back from that first visit, I was delighted when he asked if I thought he could drive to the GMC on his own – a distance of 35 miles, mostly on a main highway, too.
The following week I got a message asking me to guess where he was! No brainer! He’d ventured back on his own – and just happened to meet up with yet another former Bootneck whom he had known 30+ years’ ago.
He did the same the next week and met up with another whom he’d known for even longer. Now they are all coming out of the woodwork and meeting up for little reunions and planning joint outings!”
“Now,” says Alan emotionally, “my weekly GMC visits are a massive part of my life – and I’m so comfortable there – I’ve found a home.”
Through this series of small steps taken in partnership between two closely-aligned military charities, this veteran’s life has blossomed. The weekly call of a bacon buttie and dose of Bootneck banter has proved a simple, yet very real life-saver, enriching his life once again with much laughter and camaraderie.