Service Children Support Network - RAF Benevolent Fund

in the RAF. “Instead, I am just about to start my
first ‘proper’ job for 10 years, something I didn’t
think I would be able to do being married to the
RAF, in the form of my husband Paul, and the
transient lifestyle that comes with his job.”
An RAF wife has become one of the first to find
work using an innovative new company set up
to help military spouses. Emma Cheedy started
work in April as a Service Children Support
Coordinator for the Service Children Support
Network after registering with Recruit for
Spouses, a website established by the wife of a
serving Army officer. Heledd Kendrick set up
the company in response to the struggles faced
by many service spouses to find work.
The company, which donates all profits to
service charities, allows forces spouses to
register on its website free of charge.
Employers then pay a small fee to advertise jobs
and access the database of spouses with skills
ranging from shop floor to boardroom level. Its
patron is Lady Jean O’Donoghue, wife of
General Sir Kevin O’Donaghue, who described
Recruit for Spouses as “a great opportunity (for
spouses) to re-enter the workplace and prove
that we really can make a valuable and
worthwhile contribution to employers
countrywide.”
She said: “Recruit for Spouses will give spouses
the confidence to show their real worth.
Spouses have a wide range of skills and talents.
Many are highly qualified but have had to put
their talents on hold, or channel them into
unpaid occupations because of the vagaries of
service life and the raising of a family. Although
the latter affects civilians as well, I think that
there are additional responsibilities attached to
being a spouse of a serviceman or
servicewoman; there will be times when the
spouse is the sole carer; there will be big
upheavals in the children's lives which only the
spouse can deal with because of service
commitments.“
Emma, who has two sons – Dylan, aged 10 and
Rhys, 8, said she thought she faced permanent
unemployment while her husband was serving
Dylan was born in Cyprus, but the family left
when he was eight weeks old, and before his
first birthday had moved from RAF Akrotiri to
RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to RAF Brize
Norton. Rhys was born whilst the family was at
RAF Brize Norton and the Cheedys remained
there for more than eight years, before moving
first to RAF Daws Hill then, after 15 months, to
RAF High Wycombe.
Emma and her family.
Limited to volunteering work or school jobs, like
many military spouses, Emma became an active
member of The Royal British Legion Branch in
Carterton, helping with fundraising for the
Poppy Appeal. She was also a SSAFA Forces
Help In-Service Volunteer and was the
Community Volunteer Coordinator at RAF Brize
Norton, Beaver Scout Leader for the 2nd Brize
Norton Air Scout Group and was offered,
through volunteering in school, a job as a
lunchtime supervisor.
She said: “I had come to realise that if I wanted
to work it needed to be in a school environment
or from home.