Meet Martin, another one of our visiting carers - who celebrated his 11th anniversary with the company in August 2022 and joined us after initially retiring.
Martin is one of those people who is really easy to talk to; he’s definitely a people person and he loves any opportunity to have a chinwag.
Martin, a Kemble carer standing in a field facing the camera smiling. His dog is in the foreground
He was originally from Birmingham where he started off as an apprentice electrician. At the age of 21 he began his career with BT. He did a short stint of just some 37 years in total. It’s not very often these days you hear of someone staying in the same role for their entire working career. In 1990 he moved to the Madley BT station in Herefordshire as a sat comms power engineer.
In 2011 he was given the opportunity of taking voluntary retirement -who wouldn’t? Thinking at the age of 57 he would enjoy a relaxing retirement, “after 2 months I was bored, I needed something to get up for”. After speaking with his son, who at the time was working in social care (but now incidentally works for BT), he encouraged Martin to look into care work and recommended Kemble.
In August 2011 Martin joined the team at Kemble and in that time Martin has been both a carer and trainer, helping new employees at Kemble to find their feet. Some of the staff Martin has trained are still working for the company now.
How does he find being a carer? “You meet some really interesting people. I only go to gentlemen but they all have a life story to tell. We often compare notes as we are similar in age! I just enjoy meeting people and having a good chinwag”. Martin talked about some of the clients he used to support, and said that he misses some of the calls where he worked alongside colleagues to support clients.
When asked what would he say to someone in his shoes, looking for something to do part-time in retirement or semi-retirement he said “just give it a try, everyone is different with what they are happy doing. You are well supported at Kemble, the hours are good and I can fit my working hours around my home life and family”. The managers definitely know not to ask Martin for work on a Wednesday evening as Wednesdays are his wife’s night out for a meal!
Martin enjoys spending time with his family, especially his grandchildren. He’s heavily involved in the Hereford Rugby Club. He helped out in the juniors when his son was younger, he then became the 2nd Team Manager before becoming Fixture Secretary for a number of years. He now meets and greets opposition committee members on the 1st team match days both home and away.
If you are in a similar situation to Martin, and are looking for something fulfilling to do in your retirement, why not give us a call? The tasks can be learnt but the people-skills; kindness, patience, respect and empathy and so many more, are known and grown over a lifetime.
Our wonderful team are working throughout the day to make big and small differences in people's lives; they go home knowing that they have supported their clients and enabled them to live the life they want to live.
