An ex-navy engineer and photographer is up for the English Veterans Award after his wife beat cancer twice during the pandemic while they were trying to support veteran families across the country.
Ex-Apple genius Benjiman Sutton, 36, and his wife Victoria, 34, have had 'two years in sheer hell'. The brave couple and their family carried on their community work while battling cancer and living with severe ADHD and struggling with mental health. They teach IT to veterans while supporting their mental health.
Victoria was diagnosed with cervical cancer twice over the last year and was given the all-clear last week as her husband was shortlisted for the English Veterans Award. Despite Benjiman struggling with his mental health and Victoria fighting cancer, the pair carried on giving back to the community.
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The father-of-three from Waterloo told the ECHO: "We have just gone through two years of sheer hell. My wife had cancer twice, I have struggled with my mental health ever since leaving the service. While dealing with this we have just been trying to give back to the community as much as possible.
“It was horrific. The biggest thing I've been taught is that there is always a silver lining. Ours was that despite Covid and Victoria being sick and everything else it has just brought us all closer. It changed how our house is run in the bigger scheme. I have three girls who are all under 10 and watching how resilient they are because of everything just picks you up a little bit.
"We could sit there and be like it is the worst it could be, but it is not. We have our family. Having the resilience from the military and how it has brought knowledge and passion of what I've learnt in the past and being able to bring it into a really difficult time has just been really good for us."
Benjiman first served for the Navy 17 years ago and is now waiting for his Autism Spectrum Disorder results. The dog owner is up for a community award sponsored by Strong Mind Resiliency Training. He won a silver Entrepreneur of the year award last year after he set up Pirate Dog Media.
He was nominated by many of his clients and said it would be 'amazing' to win because it would give them a bigger platform to help more people.
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