Will
After leaving school at the age of 17, I joined the Royal Military Police. Following five years of full-time military service, I decided to transfer to the Army Reserve and re-trade as a Combat Medical Technician, while undertaking the MSci Strength and Conditioning course here at Suffolk.
As a Combat Medic, the focus of your job is trauma. We train regularly to ensure the best possible casualty care can be provided in what are often challenging conditions. But there’s also the primary healthcare side of it relating to the day-to-day wellbeing of soldiers.
My business partner, Harry, is also a veteran and a practicing paramedic. Our business, Medical Training Solutions Ltd, came about after Harry attended a tragic incident where better workplace first aid could have recognised a heart attack and could have saved the man’s life.
I have always considered myself to be a bit of an entrepreneur but never quite knew what to do. Given the current pressure on the ambulance service to respond to emergency calls, we realised that there’s an immediate requirement for improved workplace first aid training. We decided that unlike other providers, our in-house accredited and regulated courses would be led by current healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses and paramedics.
The main aim for us is that we want to improve workplace first aid. That’s the biggest thing. Nissan approached us fairly early on asking us to provide training, so that gave us the motivation we needed to get going. There’s been an enormous amount to learn, from marketing and sales to the legal side of business. Especially while still being a student.
As veterans, we have also decided to donate a percentage of our profits to the veteran’s mental health charity, Combat Stress. We have also committed to supporting the Futurestars charity in West Africa through donation of first aid supplies to each of the partnered school.
In the future I hope to continue overseeing the growth of our business; alongside perusing a PhD in a Sport and Exercise Science related field.