Cancer victim gets lift from Kibble in jobs hunt

Former soldier Ryan French won his biggest battle after he was diagnosed with cancer.
Now the 23-year-old is aiming to beat the scourge of unemployment with a little help from the Kibble Education and Care Centre’s job-training initiative.

Ryan has now been given the all-clear by doctors after he had an operation for testicular cancer last year, although he still attends the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre for a monthly blood test to make sure the cancer hasn’t come back.

After coming out of the army, where he served in Iraq, Ryan, from Castlemilk in Glasgow still didn’t have a job to go to when he came out of hospital.

But Julie Cain – a Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialist for Teenagers and Young Adults with Cancer, at the Beatson – contacted the Paisley-based Kibble organisation, asking if they would put Ryan through their four-day forklift training course.

The bosses at the Paisley-based KibbleWorks, which runs a series of businesses providing employment training for young people, agreed. Now Ryan has two nationally recognised certificates, having passed the forklift counterbalance and forklift reach training programmes.

Ryan said: “It was quite a shock to be told I had testicular cancer, but everything happened very quickly after I was diagnosed. Within two weeks I had an operation and fortunately they caught the cancer in time and it hadn’t spread anywhere else in my body.

“When I came out of the army in August 2010, I started looking for a job, but then the following month I was diagnosed with testicular cancer and that kind of put paid to the job hunting for a while.”

He added: “I had seen on the Kibble website that they provided training in forklift driving and after Julie contacted the organisation, they put me through the training programme free of charge.

“It was a fantastic gesture on their part and I can’t thank them enough. With the certificates I now have, it could make the difference in helping me find a job.”

Jim Goodwin, KibbleWorks’ service and transport manager, said: “When we heard all that Ryan had gone through since coming out the army and that he was trying to get back into work, we thought the least we could do was give him a helping hand.

“He passed the two forklift driving certificates with flying colours and here’s hoping they help him find a job.”