Mandy Hickson, RAF Tornado Pilot and Motivational Speaker
Tornado Pilot, Mandy, Served for 17 years in the Royal Air Force. Yes, you know we can’t resist, “Highway to the danger zone…..” OK, Top Gun reference out of the way and onto business.Literally, actually. Having left the RAF 10 years ago, Mandy runs her own business as a Motivational Speaker, taking lessons learned from aviation into businesses and schools.Mandy‘s grandfather, a pilot in World War II, was her inspiration to fly fast jets; but she failed the RAF aptitude tests to become a pilot. However, she persevered and learned to overcome obstacles, “I aspire to achieve”.Mandy became the second woman to fly Tornado GR4s on the front line and has become a strong role model for youngsters, inspiring them to aim for their dreams.With the events and keynote speaking business shutting down, Mandy needed to find a new sense of purpose during Covid, so she and her husband are volunteers at the local hospital, laundering and folding the scrubs for the frontline key workers.Having caught Covid early on, Mandy recognised two important things, resilience and purpose and how they are linked. Resilience “It’s about heading back to where you want to go” and purpose, “We need to have a point that we want to get back to”.“If I could gift something to my children, it'd be two things, confidence and resilience. But you can't give them either of those two things. These are things that have to be built up… confidence is like a muscle, you know, we need to exercise it, we need to build that up. Resilience comes… often from overcoming hardships.”Mandy’s experience and insight gained through the pandemic continues to provide a positive message for young people, “…They're going to be pretty resilient, because they've had to come up with new ways of learning, they've had to adapt to change quite quickly as well, constantly, with uncertainty.”And if anyone know about dealing with change quickly, it’s a Tornado pilot.Mandy's book is available on Amazon.Follow Mandy on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter.Hosted by Steve Bomford and Mike Davis-Marks.Find out more about the Company of MaIf you’re a member of the Armed Forces community and need support with your mental health, Op Courage can help. Or you could phone the Combat Stress Helpline on: 0800 138 1619Company of Makers exists to support veterans and their families who are struggling on civvy street no matter how long ago they left the armed forces.We do this by running a programme of Podcasts | Talks | Workshops.Company of Makers are trying to reach, and better understand, all members of the armed forces community who are also gamers. We’re especially interested in those that have served in conflicts over the last 30 years.To find out more contact us.