"I served in Afghanistan as a combat medic. Now I'm working hard to support veterans in life after the army"

35-year-old Tim Farrow served in the army as a combat medic for eight years. In 2013, shortly before leaving the armed forces, Tim’s story made the front page of The Star as he was given a Commanders Commendation for saving the lives of two Afghan soldiers.

“It was a proud moment,” he said. “Half of it is ‘I have done the job I’m there to do’, but in retrospect, these were quite extraordinary circumstance that not a lot of people experience themselves.”

After leaving the armed forces at the end of 2013, Tim found himself on a journey as he worked to find his place back in civilian life.

He said: “What I experienced is not too dissimilar to what anyone would experience, like poor mental health and finding a way through that.

“The majority of veterans are really successful when they leave the army, but some do need support. For me, it was a real mix of different jobs and since leaving I have had countless jobs - trying to find a new sense of purpose and maybe a new sense of identity.

“I started in private security in Iraq and then came back to the UK and joined the ambulance service. When I came back to Sheffield, I thought I needed something different, being a paramedic was quite difficult and triggering.”

Soon, Tim opted to explore the trades and was taken on by a local army reservist called Joe who showed him the ropes, but ended up joining a veterans charity, which helped ex-service men and women take advantage of transitional skills they have.

“It was the first time I started hearing this positive rhetoric about veterans,” he said. “I may have even tripped myself into the narrative that veterans need more help than they do.

“I really wanted to help people, but I can’t do it in the military anymore and I can’t in healthcare... Where do I do this?

“I thought ‘I have some experience in the trades, maybe I can do the handyman business.”

As a result, Mended Handyman Services was born and the father-of-one is finding it is the perfect way of providing that help.

He said: “It is a business but I get some much from it. Seeing others have things fixed, mended... it is massively rewarding.

“Helping other people and serving other people comes very, very naturally to anyone who has been in the forces. The value of helping others comes back to you ten-fold. That’s what veterans have got within them.”

Mended Handyman Services is a very new business - going limited in September 2024 - but already Tim is seeing his business grow and he wants to use it to offer work to other ex-service members trying to find their place in world outside the military.

“It would be a handyman service founded by a veteran, run by a veteran, employing veterans to help other veterans and the wider community,” he said. “A real veteran friendly employer that believes in what they can do, not what they can’t do.”

Whilst the business is still small, the dream is there. Tim really wants to help others with his work, veterans or not, and make people’s lives better.