Fife veterans charity appoints new ambassador to represent service

Brian Taylor, a RAF veteran with 22 years of service, has stepped into the role to represent the new charity which pairs armed forces veterans with rescue dogs to help combat mental health issues among ex-service personnel.

Now a production engineer with TechnipFMC in Dunfermline, Brian served detachments in Kuwait and Iraq as a weapons technician, leaving the RAF 10 years ago after reaching the rank of sergeant.

No stranger to fundraising, he has already raised over £90,000 for charity as well as penning two children's books.

His first book, Queenie, is a story about two girls catapulted back in time, and it has raised over £2500 for children’s cancer charity, Toby’s Magical Journey. A sequel, Scrambled With Care, has so far raised over £3000 for veterans charity Erskine.

Brian was asked to represent Kelty based AVBF after its founder, Mick Cairns, saw an article highlighting his work with his books.

He said: “Mick asked me if I would like to become an ambassador for the charity, and I jumped at the chance to help veterans who may be going through some tough times.

"What Mick is doing by pairing veterans with rescue dogs is a great idea. We always think that dogs can only help people with sight issues, and not other health issues such as mental health.

"I myself have never been diagnosed with PTSD, but I am well aware that I suffer from it and have just learned how to compartmentalise it.”

https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/people/poundland-kirkcaldy-town-centre-store-set-to-re-open-after-spell-in-hibernation-3143716

https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/crime/two-teenagers-reported-after-four-fires-in-fife-town-3143595

https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/people/kirkcaldys-community-development-team-moves-online-to-provide-pandemic-support-3142500

Brian, who lives in Tayport, acknowledges that there are many charities that help veterans, but he hopes that they can all work together to achieve the same goals.

“There are a lot of charities doing the same thing in a different way,” he said. “We need to work together and to share knowledge to achieve our goals, whether it is tackling homelessness or mental health issues.

"It helps for veterans to talk with one another, across all of the forces. We need each other’s banter and to be able to chat and take the mickey - a lot of issues arise from missing the cameraderie that comes with being in the forces.

"There is a perception of eliteness and a macho culture which makes it hard for veterans to talk about their feelings. They are even scared to talk to their families about their feelings and experiences as they feel that they might be judged or looked upon as weak.

"Leaving the forces can be daunting. There is a lot of focus on transferable skills, and a lot of guys say that they do not have any, but they do - they just don’t realise it and can easily be blinded by a fear of the unknown.

"Collectively, we need to do more to support these people; from government level down. We shouldn’t have all of these charities, but we do.

“If the government was to do more to help and look after our veterans all of these charities would not have to spread themselves so thin.”

For more information, please visit: https://www.aveteransbestfriend.co.uk/

Thank you for reading this article on our free-to-read website. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

Please consider purchasing a subscription to our print newspaper to help fund our trusted, fact-checked journalism.