Tag: ArmedForces

I joined the army at 16 and did five years in the military, then while I was still serving in the jungles in Belize I filled in the application form for the fire service. I had to write an apology note with the form to explain I was doing it from a hammock in the jungle.

A month after leaving the army I joined West Midlands Fire Service. It was the fire service that actually led me into the medical profession. I joined the fire service at 21. I stayed there for 14 years. I was inspired by a training sub officer who told me about a place in Stoke that did advance medical training. I paid for it all myself. I became an emergency medical technician and I still wasn’t happy with that so I paid for more courses and more training. I went to Denmark doing training courses, worked in Sarajevo and became a paramedic with the West Midlands Fire Service. I was still a fireman but a paramedic in my spare time.

I left the fire service in 2004 and I had my own company doing paramedic cover and teaching first aid courses. I taught for a company called Pilgrims and went to Nairobi and taught a medical and survival course to reporters who were going to be going overseas. I then went out to Baghdad because of my fire training and knowledge. It was during the elections, after the war, and they have a huge electoral building so they needed a fire and safety officer to run the building. I stayed in Iraq for about four years and went to Afghanistan and Kabul and Helmand Province for two years.

I spotted a job on Indeed with a company called GMS for a prevention officer to deal with fire and medical issues at Jaguar Land Rover. It sounded absolutely perfect. I joined April 1 2017. I joined the core team and took part in all of the training. I was the first to pass the first responder emergency care course to level 4.

I am now the CPD lead for FREC at Jaguar Land Rover. I maintain the level of all employees’ qualifications. I’ve just designed a course for the controllers on how to dispatch for medical injuries and conditions.

The minute an employee sets foot onto site the level of care they have is really quite something. We are not just security. At the Engine Manufacturing Centre for instance we have two fully functional medical rooms, medical response vehicle and four staff who are a minimum of FREC 3 trained. All the controllers are getting trained in medical dispatch. We’ve done the fire breathing apparatus course. We’ve gone above and beyond to look after employees at all times. On the shop floor we have tens and tens of first aiders. Our response time is only four minutes to anywhere on the site. We have a defibrillator and gas and air. I would have joined years ago if I’d know that we had this professional set-up and duty of care to our people.

I still reflect on the most formative years of my career which were undoubtedly in the army. It was about discipline and respect. That’s what shaped me into the person I am today. I was up at 5am every day making my bed in a block that was 15×15 inches. If your boots weren’t clean they were thrown out of the window. That’s where I got my work ethic. Taking pride in what you do, doing it well but also being honest and frank with people. I still run 10km per day and I’m always determined to do the best job I can every day.

I finished school at 21, which was a secondary engineering school. It works a little differently in Poland. I joined the army straight out of school as we still have national service, so I served for two years – one year national service and one year as a contract.

Between 1996 and 1998 I worked in Warsaw in security, fast transport team. We convoyed money, response work. Later in 2001 I came back to my home town of Wloclawek to work in the police force. I was in the police force for six years. I worked on the streets in uniform and then moved into intelligence and worked undercover in plain clothes.

I was always an athlete as I used to play handball from a young age. I got my first dumbbells when I was 15 and joined my gym. I’ve essentially trained for 30 years. I always just trained for myself rather than shows. I started competing in bodybuilding shows in January this year. Before that I was a strongman and entered many competitions both Poland and the UK. For my age I decided that bodybuilding is better for my body than strongman competitions.

When I was a policeman I was bigger than I am now. I was 20 stones so I was very big. I worked undercover so all the bad guys trusted me because of how I looked.

I rose to the rank of sergeant in the Polish police. When my friend from the UK offered me some work in the UK I jumped at the chance. I worked for a few companies including Laurence Automotive Interiors at Browns Lane as a quality technician, using my engineering skills. Coming to the UK with skills in engineering and security, there were lots of jobs for me to do. I went for the job of a CNC operator but during the interview they offered me a different job because they had problems with employees, so I became a plant protection officer. I was also trained as the fire marshal. I was there for six years at Browns Lane.

I have been at Gaydon for 18 months. I have been trained in so many things from security, to fire fighting, FREC 3 first response emergency care.

I was still competing every year in strongman competitions. I was having a lot of success but I am a little too short for the strongman events. I won the body power expo in my category in my first completion this year. It’s all about proportions. On 24 November I’ll be competing against 400 athletes in the Mr Universe completion. It’s the biggest show for 40 years. I do it all without the support of a crew, like coaches, chefs, trainers. All my crew are really supportive and let me do cardio when I need to.

I have to apply this discipline to the whole of my life. If you focus on a goal you can achieve it. I want to win in November. I work 12-hour shifts and attend so many different calls at Gaydon, then I have my family, my dieting and shift work. 24 hours sometimes aren’t enough but I’m 100% focused on achieving my goals.

In my professional career, all of the jobs I’ve done have been helping people. That’s always been the core theme. Even in security, the army, a police officer it’s all geared to helping people. That’s what makes me happy.