Nick Wilson is an Army Veteran with an impactful story to tell. After 14 years of service, Nick left the Army, with Degenerative Disease Disorder of the spine, resulting in his managing Chronic Pain and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of multiple deployments across the globe. Through his battle with chronic pain, depression and PTSD, Nick has shown his resilience, overcome adversity and gone on to become a successful entrepreneur and mental health expert through lived experience; helping those who are facing the challenges which he too went through. As a public speaker Nick is passionate about inspiring, educating and empowering both individuals and organisations to better understand mental health and suicide.
Nick first began serving as a Royal Logistics Corps Driver in the British Army back in 1999. His job took him across the breadth of the globe, serving countless operational tours in places such as Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. Nick, unfortunately, saw many horrific and traumatic things, leaving him both mentally and emotionally scarred. After 14 years of service, Nick decided to leave the Military, transitioning back into society. Nick then launched his first business, founding Purely Platinum in 2014, a Chauffeur company providing the very best transportation solutions for high-profile clients. Nick quickly became the owner of a, very successful, £1/4 Million business after just two years of operations. Unfortunately, during this time Nick was also battling with his inner demons and ever-increasing levels of chronic pain, then in 2016 he experienced a mental breakdown, attempted suicide and attended rehab, where he was diagnosed with PTSD.
After suffering immensely with mental illness and chronic pain, Nick overcame such adversity, finding ways to better manage in life with both physical and mental injuries, adapting his life routine and the environment around him. In a bid to understand the workings of the mind, Nick studied Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Mental Health First Aid and Neuro-Linguistics Programming, where he became a trainer and practitioner in all three. Then, passionate to help others who were struggling with mental health, Nick launched his second business, a mental health consultancy. Armed with his personal experiences and professional skills in mental health, combined with the life lessons he learnt serving for Queen and country in the British Army, Nick began to help organisations large and small to develop wellbeing strategies for their workforce.
Nick later went on to found men’s support group, Talk Mental Health CIC. Pivotal to mental health, Nick established this social enterprise to; raise awareness, reduce stigma amongst men, provide peer support groups for guys and promote the importance of self-management.
An advocate for positive change, Nick has also completed countless charity fundraising work throughout his career. He has raised over an astonishing £100, 000 for charities worldwide, organising events such as 1000-mile cycle ride for D-Day commemorations and the first Basra half marathon. Nick also ran immensely successful mental health campaigns during 2018 and 2019, creating the hashtags #Realmentalk and #Timetolisten which impacted 250,000 people and directly saved the lives of 10 individuals.
Most recently, in September ’21, Nick successfully managed to complete 385miles on his specialised recumbent trike, overcoming heat exhaustion, debilitating levels of chronic pain from his spinal injury, dark days mentally and injury, to represent and pay his respects to each of the 385 guys who complete suicide every month in the UK. The distance is equivalent to travelling along the south coast from Margate to Lands End, averaging 55miles a day!