Tru Champions - Vol 1 - Chandos Green
We're much more than just a recruitment company here at Tru Talent, from sponsoring renowned beach volleyball team Gleed & Jones on their road to the Commonwealth Games to inspiring young people with talks in schools and colleges, HR forums to further equip leaders in the HR field and even our sustainability promise where we plant 25 trees for every new candidate we place in a fantastic new role. There’s more to us here than recruitment and our new series ‘Tru Champions’ is no exception.
Our mission at Tru Talent is to Grow, Empower and Nurture. These aren’t just cheesy tag lines, they are what we live by. Our mission is much bigger than helping you land your dream next role or supplying top talent to some of the best companies around. We have and will continue to be a resource to our local and wider communities reaching far beyond recruitment itself.
Through each instalment of our Tru Champions series, we’ll bring you some amazing stories from some of the most inspiring champions in our sphere.
In the first of many Tru Champions instalments, we’ll hear from Chandos Green or Chandy to his friends. He is a public speaker, co-founder, campaigner, and advocate for disability and mental health rights and equality. Some would argue that Chandy’s greatest achievement has been beating brain tumours not once but twice in his life. These fights have come at the cost of restricted movement down Chandy’s left side but this hasn’t stopped him, not even slowed him down. He continues to speak nationally and support leading companies and organisations to transform their practices to not only be disability inclusive but to champion the skills and talents of many with disabilities that are so often overlooked.
If nothing else, Chandy is an overcomer in the truest sense of the word. At the age of three Chandy was diagnosed with a brain tumour that would require major brain surgery to remove, and again at six years old, Chandy would once again face brain surgery to remove the tumour that had returned. Later at the age of nineteen, he underwent another significant operation during his first year of university. These events in his early life didn’t crush him but served as a springboard to propel Chandy into the purpose and important work he continues to this day.
As someone who was told continually that he would not succeed in education and was promoted by teachers, lecturers, and healthcare professionals to give up and be comfortable to settle for his lot, he went on to not only make it to university but attained two degrees in health and social care and social work and then received a Masters degree in human rights and ethics. Chandy lives as an example to never listen to the naysayers, he shares that if you believe in yourself and get the support you need you can achieve almost anything, regardless of disability or setbacks.
Chandy uses his experience, education, and passion to help change the way people see disability. He seeks to create the change he wants to see in the world one step at a time. He continues this mission by speaking and delivering workshops nationally at colleges, universities, and multiple organisations as well as being an ambassador and mentor for many disability and mental health organisations.
For each instalment of this series, we’ll be asking our Tru Champions to answer our big three questions. Here’s what Chandy had to say.
Q. What’s something people seem to misunderstand about you?
A. I believe one of the biggest misunderstandings about myself and many other disabled people is the assumption of what we’re capable of. So often people assume what I can and can’t do, maybe from seeing my scars or from the restricted movement I have on my left side, however, I know that I blow these assumptions out of the water almost immediately, all it takes is a conversation.
Q.If you could have a billboard with anything on it, what would it be and why?
A. “You Are Enough” because you are enough!
Q.If you could turn back time and talk to your 16-year-old self, what would you tell him?
A. “You’re doing alright”. Because at this age we seem to compare ourselves so much to others and with my disability I was constantly comparing myself to my peers and others around me. I’ve learnt that we shouldn’t compare ourselves to others but instead only compare ourselves to the person we were yesterday. It’s all about the small steps that add up to the giant leaps.
We also ask each champion to leave one question for the next. You’ll have to catch our next instalment of Tru Champions to see what juicy question Chandy has left for our next champion.
You can find Chandy across socials at #hashtagchandy for amazing, inspiring, and quite often hilarious content.
We can’t wait to bring you our next instalment of Tru Champions with another incredibly inspiring champion.