Dave talks about his experience of coming to QEF’s Vocational Services, after experiencing an acquired brain injury whilst in the forces, how that impacted his opportunities for work and the doors that QEF opened for him.
“Before I came to QEF I was ex-forces – Royal Air Force regiment as a solider, based at Odiham in Hampshire. They discovered I had a brain tumour following an injury on active duty in Germany. It started to develop when I was in Bosnia, and I became aware that something was wrong – absences were developing into mild fits. After coming back to the UK in 1998 I had a fit that caused me to collapse, which was how they discovered the tumour. I had surgery which removed the tumour and my recovery took about a year. They can’t discharge you until you are 100% fit, so I was in a military hospital and then I was at home until I had to leave, as you can’t serve with an injury like that.
The forces are brilliant though and they really looked after me – I got a property and retraining as a white goods engineer. I moved to Dartford and I got a job repairing white goods. That lasted for 10 years but then I started to develop the symptoms of my brain tumour again which was a bit scary.
As I was fitting again I lost my driving license for 12 months and I was unemployed again. It turned out there wasn’t a tumour there, I just had all the symptoms. I also lost movement down my left side and the ability to walk, so I was using a wheelchair. They couldn’t really explain why this had happened, they said I had an autoimmune disease. Personally, I think it was to do with me not controlling my diabetes properly, as after I really focused on my medication gradually my walking returned.
So in 2012 I badgered the job centre in Dartford as I was hoping for a course that would allow me to get re-employed, somewhere where if I worked really hard they wouldn’t see a disability, as I now had epilepsy, type 1 diabetes and alot of medication to cope with it.
Eventually they called me and mentioned QEF, where they did employment based courses for disabled people. I had been in the building industry before joining the forces, so I came to QEF for 9 months to do a course on plastering. I was able to complete that quite quickly, so they also offered me carpentry and tiling courses as well, so by the end of my 9 month placement I was a plasterer, tiler, painter and decorator!
I came here as it was a disability training college for people with head-related injuries and I felt I fitted right in. At the start I had a real stigma about my epilepsy. But when I was in the dining hall I started talking to someone else who had epilepsy and it took the stigma away in an instant. Now I don’t care about it at all. It’s a place for head related issues and that puts me smack bang in the centre, so I fit.
QEF helped me arrange 6 weeks work experience, which didn’t really work out, so they let me finish my work experience with them, working in their maintenance team with Tony for 5 weeks refurbishing Piri Hall.
The QEF maintenance team had a job advertised and I needed someone to point out to me that I could apply and I was successful because they had seen me work. If this job hadn’t come up I would have looked for a maintenance job somewhere else and just hoped that people wouldn’t look at a disability.
I started at QEF in December 2012 and I loved it – it was a busy job. I also started running guitar classes for students at the college.
The training college part of QEF closed in 2015 which didn’t really affect my job, although it was sad to see the training go. It meant that the QEF maintenance team went further afield, as we started looking after all the shops and the centre at Banstead, as well as closing down all the college buildings which we still owned. It was just the two of us, Tony and Dave, for many years, although today we are lucky to have Trevor with us too, as well as being supported by a fantastic team of volunteers that also teach us how to do certain jobs.
I genuinely love it here. My health now is fine although I’m still coping with epilepsy and diabetes. Tony, my manager, is really good at spotting when my sugar levels are dropping as he’s known me so long, and they can drop quite quickly as it can be quite a physical job. But I don’t mind coming in for whatever is needed and I never need to take any days sick.
Tony says:
Dave is so reliable he will come in no matter what time – he came in on Christmas day last year! We’ve had some good experiences over the years as it was just the two of use for a long time. Staff here are all really nice. It’s so much better for your life to work with nice people it makes a massive difference. We have a great team of volunteers as well who make a massive difference to the team.
Dave sat down with a client at the Care and Rehabilitation Centre once who was having a tough time after a stroke had paralysed him down one side. As Dave had experienced re-learning to walk and using a wheelchair he really lifted him. He gave him hope and changed his outlook. It was brilliant. He showed him a light at the end of tunnel and it also showed how comfortable Dave is here.
