Life Talk - Jamie Faulkner

Jamie Faulkner, who was inducted into the club in May this year, spoke on 20^th September about his life. Jamie has achieved a Masters Degree, is married to an ex-police officer and has three children. He was brought up in Kingston, Surrey, and preferred socialising and sport, football, cricket and basketball – and as he said, despite his height – to schooling.  Visits to the youth club were accompanied by a squash bottle containing something stronger than the original contents! After one session in the local pub he managed to walk through the glass in a caretaker’s greenhouse which resulted in a scolding from the local policeman and a threat to “box his ears” if he did it again. He failed his “O” levels and was on the verge of being kicked out of school but a teacher was convinced that Jamie “had something” and pleaded to the Head on his behalf. Jamie saw the light and decided to “Heed that poet laureate and philosopher Freddie Mercury and “I want it all”.” His determination to succeed became a reality and he achieved his educational targets and worked for companies including IBM, Gillette and finally as Managing Director of EMEA Homedics. During this time he felt a need have more fulfilment and to do more with himself; he took up the sport of Ironman training for between 15 and 30 hours a week. He didn’t make the Ironman finals but was close.

After 25 years he was still not fully satisfied with his life so he and Emma, his wife, thought long and hard about the future and what they really wanted to do with their lives. They decided their motivations had changed and they wanted to work with and help people, to care for them. As a result they set up Acacia Home Care and now run this successfully aiming to provide the care on time, realistically and match carer with patient.

Jamie concluded that he was honoured to have become a Rotarian and join in with people with shared beliefs.