After charity helps veteran, he returns the favour
CHRIS Gillan served alongside the SAS in Afghanistan until a training injury ended his RAF career. After a ‘dire’ period of unemployment during which time his home was flooded and his family left homeless, he turned to charities for support.
Now his company, Heroes Drinks, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to employing injured veterans and supporting forces’ charities with donations from sales, is about to start selling through 353 Asda stores.
Gillan, 37, said: ‘I left the military in 2010. My plan was to join the police, but my injury was worse than I expected and resulted in me not being able to complete the fitness test and a period of unemployment. At the same time, a property I was in the process of selling flooded. Unfortunately the house insurance had come to an end and I had to sell at a substantial loss. I was in quite a dire situation financially. I had to get a council house. It was a dark part of my life.’
He added: ‘But when your chips are down you put the kettle on and move forward. I did a bit of HGV work, but the driving aggravated my injury. I turned to the charities, they kitted out my house. It left me with time to think.
‘When you’re in the Armed Forces a percentage of your salary goes to the charities, but you don’t ever think you will need a handout yourself. By going through that process I realised how much work the charities were doing.’
‘I was thinking: “How many people out there are in the same position as myself?” Self-employment seemed the natural way to go for me. I knew I could apply the skills I had from the military to business.’
In May 2015 Heroes Drinks, based in Edinburgh, became the first not-for-profit body in the alcohol sector. It donates a minimum of 20 per cent of all profits to UK Armed Forces’ causes, split equally between Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charity, ABF The Soldiers’ Charity and Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund.