Award Winner in the Army: Kat's Advice to Current Redhill Students

Kat left Redhill in 2018 and attended Military Preparation College T… (MPCT) in Wolverhampton.

Since a young age I have had a deep rooted passion to join the British Army to serve my country. Although I haven't become a combat medic yet, I intend to apply for the course after my current deployment, now I'm a qualified solder. The Army is my family and the support you get from peers and the chain of command is like no other. Before I joined, I couldn't imagine having such a strong bond with others, where they'd be willing to give their life for yours without a second thought.

Whilst at school, Kat found English to be the best and most useful subject, ‘because skills such as reasoning and communication within the army are very important to help get your point across in tricky situations.’

‘I had to return home to care for my mum which meant I was unable to complete MPCT. I used this time to successfully apply to Stourbridge College for their Level 3 Public Services Course; this would also enable me to resit my Maths GCSE to gain the grade I needed to join the British Army as a Combat Medic. Unfortunately, I failed this exam by 2 marks. Rather than resitting the exam, as I already had twice prior. I was eager to commence my career, I submitted an application to join the Army. However, 24hrs before selection began, my appendix ruptured and I was in surgery. Through grit and discipline, I managed to maintain my physical fitness post operation and subsequently passed Army selection 6 weeks later.’

‘In November 2020, I attended the gruelling 12 weeks of basic training at Army Training Regiment Pirbright (it's worse than the TV programmes show…). I excelled during this course and completed it with the award for Best Drill out of several hundred other soldiers. 3 weeks later, I moved to Royal Arumored Corps Training Centre Bovington to carry out my 29 week long specialist trade training course. Highlights included becoming a qualified driver and Operator of the CVR Tank, Qualified driver of tracked vehicles and passing my driving test. I completed this course in Jul 2021 and then moved to the Royal Dragoon Guards Regiment.

In January 2022, I was selected for an Military Operational deployment called Op TOSCA. I moved to 21 Engineer Regiment in Ripon to carry out my Pre-Deployment Training (PDT) for this. After successful completion of PDT, I was deployed overseas in March 2022 and will remain here for 6 months. My role on Op TOSCA is to represent the United Nations as a Peacekeeper between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot armies in Cyprus; although a ceasefire has been agreed, British soldiers have lost their lives during this conflict and it is currently the longest ongoing conflict that has happened in Europe since World War 1.

I think the biggest challenge in my career so far has been balancing education, army courses and deployment whilst caring for my mum, it has been incredibly difficult. Also, challenging questionable decisions and actions of others I work with can be hard, especially when they're your friend, but doing the right thing is always paramount.

My advice to the current students at Redhill would be: don't let anyone or anything stop you from achieving your goal. Growing up I was told by a lot of people, including teachers, that I would never achieve anything with my life. However, through personal self-belief, hard work and dedication I've realised that anything can be achieved. My story is just one of many that shows even if you don't excel in classic education and get the GCSEs you were aiming for, there are still ways to reach your goals.

An important lesson I've learnt is when you're feeling stressed about a problem, ask yourself, will it matter in 5 minutes? Will it matter in 5 months? Will it matter in 5 years? Life has taught me that no matter what happens, most of life's stresses are redundant when looking back at them. So enjoy your current opportunity to learn and take every challenge as a learning experience.