Everyday Heroes: Jim Lowther and Roland Lawless

After serving in the Canadian Forces, Jim Lowther and Roland Lawless are on a new mission in life. But this isn’t a battle with guns.

Both suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and are now using their experiences – which can be painful to relive – to help other veterans coping with the condition.

“It’s just a spiral down toward the street. And that’s where we are, to help pick them up, dust them off, stand with them as they go through this terrible time,” says Lowther, who works with Lawless at VETS (Veterans Emergency Transition Services) Canada.

“When I hear their stories, I feel their stories. And that allows me to focus my attention, to get them the help they need. Because I hurt when they hurt,” Lawless adds.

The former soldiers helped find a new home for Renee Boudreau, who left the military when her PTSD became too much to bear. “My career was flying until I dropped. I just snapped,” she says.

Life went downhill from there. She lost access to her two daughters and became isolated from society. Then, she lost her home.

Fortunately, VETS Canada came to her rescue.

“What they did for me means the world to me,” Boudreau tells Global News. “They helped me get out of a situation in an apartment where I wasn’t comfortable – into where I am (now). Both, being there and also providing the funds for me to do this.”

Former soldier Rob Dobson is also grateful for the organization. His nervous system crashed after a tour in Kosovo. He abused drugs and was an alcoholic. He became homeless, and was forced to eat out of dumpsters.

Then Dobson met Lowther, and everything changed.

“He knew I was going through a tough time. We’d always go for coffee. He talked to me. Give me clothes out of his closet. Got me in touch with a family doctor and psychologist,” Dobson says.

“He’s the reason I got into rehab.”

While VETS Canada is doing all it can to help troubled soldiers, it needs help itself – the financial kind. Funding is hard to come by for the volunteer-led, non-profit agency.

There is a supporter pledging to give a dollar to VETS Canada for every like on its Facebook page, but that will only go so far.

Recruiting partners that can help the agency help veterans is also critical.

Jeremy Jackson of Killam Properties says there is no doubt – VETS Canada is saving the lives of struggling soldiers.

“If (troubled vets) came directly to us, we’d probably say, ‘My gosh, I’m sorry,’ either through financial reasons or from a bad rating in terms of previous landlord experience,” Jackson says.

“(But) with housing programs like VETS Canada, they help build the bridge, and that allows us to offer the tenancy to that individual.”

As effective as VETS Canada is, believe it or not, its creation was an accident.

Lowther says, “I ran into a friend, who I sailed with, and he was homeless. And it went from there, to four vets, to 10, to 20… Now we’re right across the country. The need is really high – way higher than people think.”

“We won’t judge them. We won’t belittle them…because they are us.”

VETS Canada is based in Nova Scotia.

To nominate your Everyday Hero, e-mail everydayhero@globalnational.com. Tell us your Everyday Hero’s name, where he or she lives, and why he or she should be profiled.