Hello there and Welcome to The V Word! 

I'm Ria, nice to meet you virtually!

Who am I? 

​I am a veteran having served 12 years in the Royal Air Force. I left at the back end of 2016 and yes I am still trying to navigate the marvellous yet sometimes unforgiving territory and minefields known as 'veteran life', 'civvy street' and 'parenthood'!

What is this? 

I originally founded The V Word in Nov 2021 as an outlet and a mission to share the innermost workings of my dark and twisted mind (I feel I should insert a pre-emptive apology right about here.. Haha!).

What started as a personal blog has grown arms and legs and turned into a strong, supportive, collaborative and fully functioning community for women veterans. 

The community promotes veteran owned businesses and has grown to enable members to sccessfully connect with a much broader audience and network.

The community itself has rallied to help other members offering support, guidance, camaraderie and opportunities in personal growth, education and employment.

We have also actively participated in much needed research for women veterans and the overall veteran community and continue to do so, to provide much evidence for actionable change for us and future generations of service women and women veterans.

For more details of who we are and what we do please read the about section and look on our multiple social media platforms (Links to these can be found at the top of the webpage).

Truth is, when I founded this movement, it wasnt actually meant to be a movement, in fact it was not a completely philanthropic venture at all!

I did it because I needed a community and when I went looking for one... there was nothing!

I am a firm believer in the quote:

'If you want the change, Be the change' 

(You will quickly learn if you choose to join or follow, that yes, I am that person that absolutely loves a bloody good quote!)

Women have served in the Military in some capacity or another (albeit invisible at times) for over a century, with some extroardinary women paving the way for us.

So lets's continue to make our ancestors proud and continue to grow our community.

Let's raise the profile of military women and women veterans in the strong and positive light that we truly deserve, lets be visible.

Service people and other members of the armed forces community community, are incredible human beings, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation etc. However current societal perceptions of veterans are relatively confined and narrow in their ideals and unfortunately the resources and support provisions currently available are lacking, particularly regarding gender specific requirements.

Let's set fire to our bras, and make some positive noise, lets empower our underrepresented cohort and make the UK truly the best place to be for ALL veterans! (PS: Dont burn the expensive bras though, obviously, oh and please do ensure that all health and safety precautions are adhered to, I cant afford to be sued! Haha). 

If you have got this far, then Thank You for reading, Welcome and please do check out the rest of the site!