RMA-RMC-Impact-Report-2023-24 - Flipbook - Page 18
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Employment & Education
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The peak
of success
Mission accomplished! Despite having
to leave the Royal Marines with two
fractured feet, Ryan is now on top of
the world thanks to a training grant from
RMA – The Royal Marines Charity.
Former RM recruit Ryan Thomas, who
hails from Manchester, says: “2022 was a
very crazy year indeed for me. I couldn’t
have ever imagined in my wildest
dreams where I would be now.
I couldn’t have done it without any of
you guys at the RMA Charity. Not just
from a funding point of view but just
from having access to the large network
of support that you made available
to me.”
Ryan has certainly been on a real
roller-coaster ride since joining the
Royal Marines in October 2019 to turn
his boyhood dream of becoming a
Commando into reality.
But, sadly, it was not to be. The tough
training regime at the Commando
Training Centre in Lympstone, Devon,
resulted in severe fractures to both
his feet following particularly gruelling
exercises in the field. He endured two
stints in Hunter Company, undergoing
intensive programmes of medical
rehabilitation, re-joining training twice —
but only to get injured again.
“Each time, I had to go
through it all again. My
motivation completely
went, having already
spent over a year in rehab,
Ryan remembers.”
And so in January 2022 he was
catapulted headlong into finding
something else to do with his life.
He then remembered an interview he’d
had during the leaving routine with
the Charity’s Employment & Education
team. “They thought I’d be best suited
to the outdoor industry and helped me
start the job search by enrolling me for a
residential rural week with HighGround
at Bicton College, along with five other
RMs going through the same thing (see
page 17 ‘Tree-mendous success!’).
In the meantime, I came across a
company operating out of the UAE
that was looking for general duties’
instructors. I applied, had an interview
the very next day, got the job — and
two days later flew out to Dubai!”
Ryan nevertheless returned to join
the pre-arranged HighGround week
to see if any of the rural careers such
as tree surgery or estate management
highlighted during the course would
be of more interest. It made him realise
that he already ‘absolutely loved the
work’ he’d been doing, so he returned
to Dubai where his whirlwind transition
into a new way of life was about to lead
to greater things!
It was during a chance meeting with
some climbing guides from India that he
then learned about the qualifications
available through the Himalayan
Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling.
This was set up in 1954, with Tenzing
Norgay Sherpa as its first director, after
he and Sir Edmund Hillary had become
the first to successfully summit Mount
Everest the previous year.
He was excited by the amazing
opportunities this could open up.
The Charity had continued to keep
in touch with Ryan to follow his
progress with transition, and so, when
asked if they could offer any financial
support to enable him to take the
intense month-long training course
to become a mountain guide in one
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