Kim S. Email and Phone Number

Volunteer (when Health allows) to campaign against issues affecting Women and Veterans.Helping to bring Women’s Football and Military veterans together -to support - to socialise- creating “safe spaces” for women to thrive.Assisting with Educational development and Mentoring for Veterans and any Woman who wishes to change her pathway.Assisting in pushing the case for all MST MSA investigations to be made independant of the MoD and Military - campaigning for womens issues generally and Globally.

Most of the dates I’ve entered are approximate due to trauma, apart from ones like the Royal Navy and BCG which are on public record at MoD and Companies House - I may get some verification - not that I need it as I no longer work and my condition is degenerative - I now take on voluntary roles - and help as and when I can - those I help have full knowledge their will be times I can help, and times when I need time out. I was Head hunted to take up this last working position -after departing the successful business we had created - However I was tired and in constant pain, and my heart really wasn’t in it - I was promised things that didn’t appear like cars and contracts for setting up a new branch for this company near Rochdale Lancs However, in and around the end of 1994. Not too sure of this date - I was told I would t work again with the Injury being so severe to my back - my consultant surgeon along with my GP and an independant Doctor who worked for the infamous ATOS ! wrote a certificate to say I could no longer work -Due to being unable to work, I’ve studied when I can - since 2000,I’ve tried to do something voluntary or study wise, just to keep a structure to my day - and for my mental health as well as distraction of ongoing trauma and pain - the OU who I study with - literally saved my life after working - it gave and still does give me a purpose - and the fact I can choose when I study makes it helpful - it’s all online so I can study lay down or whilst in bed - I recently won a veterans scholarship to do my masters degree - I did a module last year - but trauma pain and mental health, a recent diagnosis of CPTSD and a diagnosis of ASD has meant taking this year out, from doing anything and focussing on my own mental health and well being for perhaps the first time in my life ! A message to all is, if you can reduce your hours on the treadmill, do it ! get out there and enjoy life , you never know what spanner life will throw at you.

Left ISA started to sell our Fax paper - from which can only be described as a broom cupboard ! Like at ISA,our customers all stood out in telephone books with their Fax numbers ! The telephone directory was a great tool We sold in fax paper to open the account, when we had opened 250 accounts we employed a Sales Person who then sold in anything and everything the customer wanted - if we didn’t already supply i would source it ! Start up was hard as the bank manager wouldn’t believe two women could run a successful business. We forecast £125k turnover in our first year, which he laughed at - we took it on the chin but kept him and invested ourselves and via investor around 13k to start up ourselves. We exceeded the £125k in first year and then the bank manager wanted to offer us anything we wanted - we declined - I set up an in-house collections agency- so bad sent was kept to. Minimum and out GP ran at over 45% ! This was probably one of the best moments in my life, apart from the pride I felt joining up ! Just to see a bank manager squirm when we had both proved him wrong - we had good mentors on Briony side of the family which helped as well as at times hindered - but it was a good time a business built on firm foundations, we sold and collected thr cash in and sold again - by the time I came to depart the company - which was down to relationship issues (maybe due to my previous trauma and ongoing back difficulties) we were turning over well into £4 million sales And it still goes on today - I always felt sore for ages after leaving as I Goya poor deal on departure - but I was willing to take the easy route of walking away - but no grudges now - I know that BG “knows” too well the work I put into getting the business of the ground - and my part in making it a success- my focus was always in doing things positive for the business and we both learnt as we went along - my back pain was also hitting new levels so along with heartbreak I left around May 93

I came here to explore the workings of a computer consumables business, as at this time it was an area of business growth. It was here I met my future Founding Business Partner Briony Grice - who was a sales manager at the time I joined - she gave me the job! The business plan was to sell in fax paper to accounts using phone books !! Our customers all stood out with Fax numbers ! We sold in fax paper to open the account and then sold in anything and everything the customer wanted - I learned a lot about sales here, how to make a creative space for selling - how to hype the sales with prizes and offers etc I was sucking it all in - all the time thinking how we could do it better - after a few months we started to look at premises and identify suppliers etc and we took the plunge

This was my first business, I set it up myself having gained a £47.000Government grant it was set up as more people were going into Europe to work and we were doing more business with companies in Europe here in the UK - it was for women who wanted to gain a skill - from short hand / typewriting / word processing/ and combined the skill with a language French/ German/ Spanish and Italian All teaching was done via audio tape with a qualified teacher to each subject area. I also had a one of the first in house crèches for a small business in the UK, so women with children could leave their young with a qualified nursery nurse whilst they studied and could visit them whilst they took breaks. This also allowed me to take it easier - I was just there to “oversee” it’s running, however along with other problems I burnt out - downturn and employing another person onto the board proved to be a bad decision ! So this wound up and I headed off to learn about another - new and upcoming area stationary and computer consumables !

Another move, this time across to Huddersfield, I was changing jobs, before I was sacked. Once I I felt poor attendance was being monitored, I panicked and looked for the next job - but each time trying to be better - trying to survive, trying to have something to distract me from the trauma! I found this role to develop work I’d done in previous role, designing training programmes.The national curriculum was fairly new, so many things were being designed to align with it - key stages etc - I remember reactive and proactive being words of the moment and I tried to design training programmes for certification and accreditation with two wonderful women who formed the company and inspired me, one was Christine Shaw and I forget the other name, but another Chris. Again I didn’t stay long here but through out the previous two positions I was planning setting up a business myself geared around training and giving people better prospects.

Still Unsettled - and another move to get work - but this time Manpower services paid for me to live in a hotel ! They got me from birmingham to Wakefield and I tried to offer some of my skills i had learnt in the Forces. It was great being around young people again and giving them chances and new pathways to improve their own lives. The hotel living wore off after the first month or so - I was there for almost 6months - I was experiencing huge change - still Struggling MH wise - and strangely still lived looking over my shoulder ! I was still trying to find a place to settle - this wasn’t it but the hotel gave me a fixed space for a while - i was looking for the type of job I could do with a serious hidden back injury, I took time off, as this is when the real pain started - and unbeknown to me at the time I was dealing with PTSD that turned to CPTSD. I was just trying to stay alive. I learnt new skills and all the Tim wi was picking up ideas to use in something to run myself - as I was always worried about having time off.

A friend got me this job to help out with leaving the forces suddenly, during the LGBT ban which was only overturned in 2000. I’ll be honest I hadn’t a clue what I was doing, but i had training and managed to hold this job down for a few months but, I was experiencing pain from injury and ( looking back ) I had trauma and mental health problems trying to come to terms with my whole experience from events within HM forces and leaving a career I loved and friends and new “family” I’d made. Civvy street is a frightening place when your very young and find yourself using different friends houses to sleep, trying to hold a job without a fixed address I put hybrid, however, it didn’t exist then but some work was in office and some out in the field.

LGBT ( now Veteran) member of HM Armed Forces - before the illegal ban that was lifted in 2000