A combat medic whose life fell apart after he contracted a devastating disease from a tick bite in Afghanistan has battled back to land a job at a top Mayfair restaurant.
Ben Graveson, 39, felt “like a failure” when he was discharged from the Army but a food apprenticeship scheme changed his life. He contracted Q Fever — also known as Helmand Fever — in 2008. In extreme cases it causes irreparable damage to vital organs.
The illness “put a stop to his Army career” as he was physically ill for six years, which had “a huge impact” on his mental health. He was discharged in 2014 after 18 years of service. Mr Graveson told the Standard: “My whole life was essentially over, or at least how I knew it. It was an awful time.”
After his discharge he was sectioned and spent several months in the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust hospital for mental health and post-traumatic stress disorder treatment.
During that time, he heard about the Beyond Food Foundation — which helps people at risk of homelessness or who are already on the streets to gain meaningful employment in hospitality. Mr Graveson signed up for an apprenticeship scheme with the foundation and took a City and Guilds diploma in Professional Cookery for a year.
In January, he will start full-time at the private Conduit Club in Mayfair where the restaurant is run by a Michelin-starred Merlin Labron-Johnson as executive chef.
Mr Graveson said: “[The course] has been pretty tough but I just wanted to make myself better. I wanted to become someone new. I wanted to put my medic career to bed and then move on. And I have, I am Ben the chef now.”
Beyond Food was established in 2004 by chef Simon Boyle. For almost a decade it has been running Brigade Bar & Kitchen, a social enterprise restaurant in a Grade II listed fire station at London Bridge. A number of the scheme’s trainee chefs, including Mr Graveson, have learned their trade there.
- For more go to www.thebrigade.co.uk
