Founder of Veterans In Action

Billy MacLeod

Billy MacLeod joined the Royal Engineers Junior Leaders Regiment as the youngest recruit at the age of 16 and 5 days in June 1977 and trained as a Combat Engineer, Amphibious Engineer and a Bricklayer and served on many tours around the world as well as on operations. Billy received an injury that through time got gradually worse and hampered his career which sadly ended too early due to his injuries.

On leaving the services Billy then went onto the oil rigs as a Cementing Engineer which suited him as it was the same atmosphere as being in the Army with lots of hard work and banter. Again the injury raised its head and for safety reasons Billy had to leave another job that he enjoyed.

This led to a few unfulfilling jobs driving trucks and being very solitary and he found difficulty in motivating himself and knew something was missing. He then started a taxi company and ran this for many years hoping he could recapture the cameraderie he had in the services. Again there was no real challenge and he never found what he was searching for, which was to be a part of a team, so became disillusioned. After a major car accident, he reassessed what he was doing with his life and decided to give himself a real kick start.

He understood what he had missed on leaving the services and felt that if he had felt this way then others would be feeling the same. He was happier working within a team of like minded people which was the inspiration behind Veterans In Action.

After a total of 13 operations on his legs, Billy is the planner behind the VIA events and although he also takes part in them, he is limited in what he can do physically, but still plays an active part as CEO.

Billy trained as a Master Practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming, Time Line Therapy and Hypnotherapy which helps with the work he does with the veterans. He has worked alongside Bob Elliott and Paul Boag on developing the unique three step process called the ALIVE Program that is the basis of what Veterans In Action use to work with veterans.