Felix Fund and End of PM Course Interview

The BFBS Big Salute grants money to charities that support the armed forces. Last year, they gave a grant of £5,000 to the Felix Fund for a mindfulness course. Anton Gash, a veteran, filmed the project as part of his course. The Felix Fund provides a safe space for bomb disposal personnel and their partners to discuss and process their experiences. The mindfulness course has been successful and has led to requests for more courses. Participants have found it valuable and have formed bonds with each other. The BFBS Production Manager's course has helped Anton translate his military skills into the film and TV industry. He now feels confident and sees a niche for ex-service personnel in the industry. The BFBS Big Salute gives grants to charities that support our armed forces using the money you fundraise worldwide through the year. Last year we awarded a grant to the Felix Fund, the bomb disposal charity that support the well-being of personnel from the explosive ordnance disposal and search community across the British military. The charity was awarded a grant of £5,000 to help support a newly developed biannual mindfulness course, and Anton Gash, a veteran himself and a student of the BFBS Academy, went along for BFBS as part of a filming project for the production manager's course. Good afternoon, Anton. Good afternoon, Richard. So, you've actually got a really big day today, because you're doing your... it's the actual graduation, isn't it, today? It is. I've got my wife, my mother, all teed up, ready to go, excited about the event. How was the journey in, all right? It was the M25. Need I say more? No, let's move on. OK, you went along to the Felix Fund, tell us a little bit more about the mindfulness course and where the money from the big salute was spent, will you? I had a chat recently to the commanding officer of one of the explosive ordnance disposal battalions, who commanded back at the peak of operations in Afghanistan. And it was an interesting chat with him, because he said that back then they were putting together units of EOD, or bomb disposal personnel, who'd come from, frankly, all over the country and all over the United Kingdom, you know, a team from here, a team from there, which was fine when they were on operations in Helmand. But when they came home, and they all dispersed back to their home bases, there was a real problem with support, not having that single base, that single unit, and that single focus. Now, there are heroes everywhere we look, and not just in the military, but in the bomb disposal world. I think it's a particular sort of courage, and I've only observed this, because the work is very intense, and a lot of it is very internalized. So I think they have some particular challenges with how they then deal with what they've gone through. So Felix Fund was set up, and as I understand it, it was very much seen as creating a safe space where people could discuss, process, and hopefully move on from the trauma and the experiences that they'd gone through. Okay. Set up the first clip for us, will you, and tell us what we're going to hear. Yes. I spoke to Melanie Morton, who's the Chief Executive Officer of Felix Fund, and it was very clear from the outset how passionate she is, particularly about this issue of spouses or partners of those heroes who have served, who are in their own way just as heroic. And she talks about how spouses are taken for granted, and how the stresses and strains that they experience are often underestimated. Spouses and partners of those serving within the EOD and search communities can often be overlooked. The jobs that their partners undertake often requires duties at short notice, deployment at short notice, and they're left holding the fort at home. You know, they may have their own work as well, which is equally important. As a charity, Felix Fund is here to support the dependent family members, and one of the key ways in which we're able to do that now is through our spouses dashboard program. You met the course lead, didn't you, Lizzie Judkins? Get us into clip two, will you? Lizzie is a very, very dynamic trainer. It's amazing to watch her engage with the people who she's working with. She has run the core mindfulness course for serving personnel and veterans, and she's also been very much at the heart of creating this weekend retreat version for spouses and partners. She talked about the value of their shared experience for those who've perhaps been living a slightly isolated life, and who've had to bottle up all of the problems that they've been dealt with. How quickly the emotion flowed. So within a space of an hour or so, there was a lot of tears. But because of the relief of sharing their individual experience with predominantly the partner's courses are for women, but sharing that experience with other women, you had other women going, I feel like that. I feel like that. Oh, I feel like that. And that sense of unity, because a lot of these women are not near friends, not near family, and not involved or connected or have friendship groups with other serving personnel or partner. So they're very isolated. So they come into this room, sit with other women who may have a very similar experience, and they start to share that, and they start to support each other. And that was a massively, massively powerful, before I presented anything from my perspective, just to see those women bonding over the evening meal or speaking at breakfast and getting very connected. And I know for a fact that after the course, a big chunk of them kept in touch, you know, via phone calls and social media, et cetera. So they clearly made a bond. From what you saw, what was the reaction of those who'd been on the course? What was the kind of feedback? The feedback from the course was overwhelmingly positive. And what I've definitely picked up is that what it's led to is requests for more and more courses. People who've been on the courses tell their friends, their colleagues about it. And also those who've been on the course want to go back. They want to repeat, have a return visit. And I think universally, they find it incredibly valuable. Okay. Let's have clip three. Katrina was one of the pioneers on the first of these weekend retreats that were run for spouses and partners. You'll hear in her voice how she had initial doubts about the value of the program, but then completely threw herself in with gusto. I think it became apparent really, really quickly that although I did think I had a good understanding of my wellbeing and protecting my time and looking after myself, I didn't expect to feel as relaxed as quickly, as relaxed as I did, as quickly as I did. And I didn't expect, for example, to be in a room with a group of strangers to say by the end of the day, I'll be falling asleep, laying on the floor, cuddling up to a bean bag in front of lots of people I've never met before. If you'd have asked me at the beginning, would I have done that? I probably would have said no. I would have been a bit too guarded to do that. But by the end of the day, and very quickly, even at the beginning of the session, I think it became very apparent that the feel of the room was just so relaxed. And Lizzie was fantastic. She just made you feel comfortable straight away. And she was also really quirky, which is kind of me, which I really liked as well. Brilliant. And there are still catch-ups where we see where the money from the Big Salute has been spent, because they're so useful. And you can vouch and say, this money is going to a good cause. The money is going to one of the best causes. It was rapidly clear to Felix Fund what pressures existed, what pressures mounted on families. And so they really had to rethink their offer. And it was the BFVS Big Salute grant that allowed them to have that ambition to set up a wholly new course for a different group of people. Okay. I'll let you go, because you've got the BFVS Production Manager's graduation going on now. You look very smart. What did you think of the course? The BFVS Production Manager's course has been an extraordinary six months. I didn't really know what I was going to get out of it. But what it's done, and what its aim was, was to take pre-existing military skills and translate those into the film and TV industry. So it's things like planning, risk management, logistics, things that we can do, but perhaps we didn't have the vocabulary or terminology, and most importantly, the confidence. And I feel I'm coming to the end of this time. I can have a reasonably sensible discussion with people in the industry. I'm not lost. I've learned that my skills are absolutely transferable and are relevant. And I think what it's shown me is that there is a natural niche for ex-service personnel in the film and TV industry, contrary perhaps to their expectations. Anton Gash, thank you so much. Good luck this afternoon. Thank you very much, Richard. Pleasure talking to you.