‘If it wasn’t for Help a Squaddie, I’d probably be dead’
When Nathan Wroe signed up to join the army at 17, he thought it would provide him with an escape from his difficult upbringing. “I’d had a tough childhood, which was violent pretty much every day,” says the 44-year-old, who went on to serve in Bosnia and Kosovo.
But rather than offering Nathan refuge, things took a turn for the worse. “I was bullied really badly in my regiment. So badly that I tried taking my own life,” he explains.
Though his suicide attempt thankfully failed, Nathan didn’t get the help he needed. “I went on a downward spiral from there,” he says. “I got in with a bad crowd and started taking drugs, using them as antidepressants. But in 2000 I was caught out in a compulsory drug test and told my services were no longer required.”
After less than four years in the army, Nathan was on his own and found himself homeless four times in the coming years. Despite holding down a job as a railway worker for 18 years, he continued using drink to mask his mental health issues. “I hadn’t even realised I was suffering from depression and PTSD,” he says of the addiction that cost him his job in 2022. Thankfully, this time, people were there to catch his fall. “I learned about Help a Squaddie through a friend who was getting help from them,” says Nathan. Help a Squaddie offers mental health support to disadvantaged ex-service personnel, helping retrain and rehouse those who have fallen on hard times. “They’ve done so much for me. They helped me get clean, I’ve made friends - it’s like I’ve got a second family and a purpose,” says Nathan. In 2019, Help a Squaddie was announced as a winner of The People’s Projects and awarded £48,400 of National
Lottery funding, allowing them to scale up their work, investing in property to house homeless ex-service people and increasing the numbers they could assist from 15 to almost 300. The People’s Projects is back and looking for winners. Have your say in how £4m of National Lottery funding is put to use by brilliant community projects. Look for good causes in your local area at thepeoplesprojects.org.uk.
Since discovering the charity, Nathan has taken mentoring, mental health and first aid courses and now volunteers with Help a Squaddie himself.
“I can see I’ve got a future now, I’ve got a life, whereas before it was just blank - I didn’t know what I was waking up for. If it hadn’t been for Help a Squaddie, I wouldn’t be where I am now. I’d still be homeless, or most likely dead.”
EX-SERVICEMAN NATHAN WROE SHARES HOW NATIONAL LOTTERY FUNDING FROM THE PEOPLE’S PROJECTS HAS HELPED HIM FIGHT HIS DEMONS