Christian Lillington

Christian is a retired Army Veteran of 26 years and a father and step-father to seven unique and equally amazing human beings. He was born and raised in a small fishing community called Neil’s Harbour in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He has lived most of his adult life in the province of Ontario bouncing between Petawawa, Kingston, Toronto and Ottawa before he retired in Wasaga Beach; home of the world’s largest fresh water beach. He was deployed within Canada on domestic operations three times including the Arctic, deployed in an expeditionary sense with the United Nations in Eritrea and has two tours to Kandahar, Afghanistan, which included his last tour as a reconnaissance commander in Panjwayi in 2010.

Happily married to his soul mate and confidante, Kelly, Christian’s renewed purpose upon retirement is advocacy for serving members, veterans and their families, especially as it applies to mental health and living with complex trauma. He aspires to reducing the epidemic of mismanaged and misunderstood service related injuries and to better the lives of veterans and their families. As an author and public speaker, he works to de-stigmatize mental health, namely suicide, to save lives.

Christian takes pride in his well-groomed beard, and his wife’s favourite Educated Beards scent is Balsam Eclipse.