Ex-member of Irish boyband creates CBD business after injury in Afghanistan

An army veteran, who was once in an Irish boyband and toured with Westlife and other stars in Ireland, has founded his own CBD company to help treat strains and aches after becoming injured in Afghanistan.

Farard Darver, 44, born in Farnborough, Kent and raised in Dublin, had singles in the Irish charts from the age of 18 with Men2B and Area 4, and was eventually accepted into the British Army after being turned down multiple times.

Now he is the founder and chief executive officer of Healthcare International Research, which owns two CBD brands, Hempe and MotherSage, which both sell products across four continents.

As the son of an Indian immigrant, he believes that anything is possible if you try hard enough.

After projecting out of a military vehicle while serving in Afghanistan, Farard became injured and by the age of 40 he needed a hip replacement because of the wear and tear of his 17 years of service.

He discovered CBD and launched his company while still in the army, before leaving in 2019 to pursue the business full-time, turning down a full pension and promotion.

Farard, who has two sons with his wife, Lucy Darver, 43, grew up in Dublin and instead of going to university he joined the boy band Men2B at the age of 18.

Around two years later, one of the members left the band so they renamed themselves Area4 and featured on RTÉ and toured with Westlife on RTÉ’s radio station, 2FM’s Beat on the Street Tour throughout Ireland in 1999.

He said: “We had some success, released some singles and toured with Westlife.

“I came to the UK to try and chase that dream.

“One day, when I was doing a gig in a northern working men’s club, somebody said to me, ‘What are you doing here? Why aren’t you on TV doing this?

“We got talking and I asked him what he does and he was about 15 to 20 years older than me, and I suddenly realised that I just wanted to do something else.

“I’d already got the t-shirt and lived a little with the band – we were in the Irish charts and had screaming teenage kids come to our gigs.

“And I just thought, there’s something else I want to do. I didn’t want to become someone who just got around in the music industry, and I had a fairly decent crack at it.

“But when I left school in Dublin, I only left with the leaving certificate. I barely scraped enough points to pass and I wasn’t really what you would consider academic.

“In June 2003, I had a letter saying I don’t have the academic capability to be an officer in the army.

“I basically went back and said, ‘No, give me a shot’, and I went off and did extra maths and English lessons.”

Eventually, after a lot of back and forth, Farard was accepted by the regular Commissions and in December 2005, at age 26, he went to Sandhurst to begin his training.

He said: “I joined the Royal Logistic Corps and I did that because when you join the army, you want to go off and do it for real and I always wanted to get my Green Beret.”

In 2007, Farard was part of Operation Herrick six in Afghanistan for around seven months.

He said: “I was a commander and I did exactly what I wanted to do. I led my troops in big logistic convoys. It was a fantastic experience.”

But while he was in Afghanistan, Farard was injured in a road traffic accident, saying: “One of the things the Taliban used to do, to slow down any vehicles, was put things in the road like big blocks or barbed wire so that they can have you in an area they can contact you.

“When leaving at night, we hit one of these massive rocks in the middle of the road that we didn’t see.

“I just got thrown forward and was in a vehicle that didn’t have a windscreen or roof.

“Unfortunately, I caught my leg on one of the bars you hold to steady yourself on the command seat.

“I rolled out over the top of the bonnet and I shook it off I suppose.

“You don’t want to say you’re injured, you just kind of get on with it.

“But, it caused a bit of an injury on my leg and elongated all my muscles and ligaments.”

Farard was in the army for 17 years – he did a commando course, got his Green Beret, served with three commando brigades, served on Herrick 14, and was a mentor to the Afghan National Army.

But carrying heavy equipment, playing a lot of sports and constantly moving, eventually took its toll.

He said: “At age 40, I needed to get my hips sorted. When I came back from Afghanistan, it was quite sore.

“I went for an operation in 2012 through the army that resurfaced the hip and that kind of got me about another five years.

“But then in 2019 and 2020, as I was leaving the army, it was very obvious that I was in a lot of pain. It just got to the stage where I needed to get it sorted just for the quality of life, so I had a hip replacement.

“I did my rehab but I was still in a lot of pain.

“But after trying CBD, within six weeks I was not using crutches and I was back walking.”

While Farard was still serving he founded a CBD company, Healthcare International Research, in 2019, acquiring all the tools he needed to learn about running a business by completing an MBA and becoming chartered as a fellow in management, logistics and transport.

He said: “I got to an age where I couldn’t continue to serve and run a company because it’s unfair.

“I walked away from promotion and a full pension and decided to delve into this.

“My company tries to demonstrate efficacy and try to educate and dispel fiction and confirm fact because there is a lot of nonsense out there.”

Looking back on his successes, despite being turned down by the army multiple times, Farard said: “I’m the son of an immigrant, my dad is an Indian guy who had a dream to be a pilot and he ended up working for many airlines.

“I’ve created my own company that now sells across four continents and I believe that if you work hard, you can get any opportunity.”