My name is Janet and I have been a volunteer at the Brightwell with the Fundraising team since 2017.
I was born and brought up in the London Borough of Ealing and started off my working life at NatWest Bank in Wembley where my main hobbies were socialising with my friends and going to watch West Ham United matches with my Dad.
I met my husband Mike in 1974 in the Mecca Ballroom in Leicester Square in London when he was serving in the Army with the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards and posted to Chelsea Barracks. We got married in 1975 and then our adventures began!
During Mike’s military service we welcomed our daughter, Olivia, in 1976 and Victoria, in 1979. By the time Mike had left the Army in 1994 we had lived in eight different married quarters in Uckfield, Berlin, Pirbright, Hohne (near Hannover), Pirbright (again!) and Nuneaton and finally we moved into our own house in Barry in South Wales in 1991. As we moved around so much I had many varied jobs over the years including shop worker, Avon rep, childminder, Guards Museum cleaner, microfiche operative, chambermaid, receptionist, kindergarten teacher, and nursery school manager before finally joining the Civil Service in 1989 as a Pay Office Clerk at the Guards Depot in Pirbright, Surrey. Life as an Army wife had its ups and downs especially when Mike was away for months at a time but it was a great life and I would not have changed it for anything.
When we moved to Nuneaton I worked as a Clerk with a Royal Artillery Junior Soldiers Training Battery and then when we moved to Wales I started work with the MOD at RAF St Athan where I was given the opportunity to study to become a Chartered Management Accountant on day release and evening classes at the University of Wales. It was a great challenge but also very rewarding and I become fully qualified in 2001. Our travels were not finished as my MOD job then took us to live in Bedford for two years, then Westbury, Wiltshire where we thought we were settled until my job relocated to Bristol; so, in 2011 we moved to Bradley Stoke into what is hopefully our forever home! It was a lucky move for us as our two daughters were already living around Bristol so we actually moved closer to our family.
At MOD Abbey Wood in Bristol I worked as a business analyst in the development of MOD finance and HR computer systems. It sounds really boring but it I loved that job as it involved meeting lots of interesting people all around the UK and talking to them find out what they needed from IT systems either to help employees do their jobs more efficiently or to help customers better access the services they required.
I retired in 2017 a couple of years earlier than planned when Mike suddenly had to have an operation and treatment and I wanted to be at home more, Once Mike was on the road to recovery I had more time on my hands so I became a volunteer at The Brightwell. At the time the Fundraising Team needed some admin support which was just what I wanted to do and the rest is history!
I really enjoy coming in to volunteer at the Brightwell every week as it is such a friendly place and there is always lots of varied things to keep me busy (I love being busy!) plus it helps me keep my skills from my working life and develop new skills I didn’t know I possessed. In recent weeks I have written lots of thank you letters, input finance data onto the database, sorted out cupboards, re-stocked the shop, made hamper prizes, sorted out bingo prizes and made the Brightwell scarecrow for the Bradley Stoke Council Scarecrow trail!
Besides my time at The Brightwell I am a member of Bradley Stoke WI, belong to a book club, go swimming, love knitting mainly for charities and enjoy travelling.
I expect that I will be busy in the next few weeks helping the Fundraising Team get ready for the Christmas Market and then helping out on 30th November. It will be a great event and a great opportunity to get some Christmas presents so I hope to see you all soon.
Best wishes to everyone.
Janet
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