The Death of the Fronsac Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere Profile - Jacey & Phil Stewart

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Profile

Jacey & Phil Stewart

Jacey was born in Welwyn Garden City, her father ran a carpet fitting business working mainly for Harrods and other top end stores – he is proud of the fact that he fitted the famous White Carpet for John Lennon! Her mother had a ladies fashion business but sadly she died when Jacey was only 12 and her younger brother was 8 so from an early age she had to shoulder quite a lot of responsibility. It has made them into a strong family unit. Phil was born a little further away, in High Wycombe and has an older brother who recently returned there; his parents live in Beaconsfield.

Jacey went to St Edmunds College where she was always a bit of a rebel. She went to Hertford Regional College with dreams of becoming a journalist but when it was time to do her work experience she found she couldn’t take the cutthroat atmosphere and left to go travelling round the world. She travelled mainly in New Zealand, doing odd jobs here and there to support herself and eventually returning home in 2004 with a desire to do charity work. She found a job at the Wellcome Trust in London working in the Finance Department, dealing with major overseas programmes and that was where she met Phil.

Phil was another one with itchy feet – he went to Dr. Challoner’s Grammar School in Amersham and then to Cardiff University to read Business Administration and at the age of 21 went off to Taiwan on an AIESEC International Student Exchange. He stayed out in Taiwan for two years including six months teaching English as a foreign language. I think the petite Taiwanese must have been impressed by Phil’s towering height of 6.6”!

Eventually he came back to England and went into a graduate Chartered Accountant trainee programme, qualifying in 2004. A fully fledged ACA, he then went off again travelling round the world for six months and on his return home he joined the Wellcome Trust where he met Jacey. They were married in 2008

and in August 2009 Amelia was born. The trio were so happy, but Amelia had been born with an undiagnosed hole in her heart and she collapsed just before Christmas. Emergency open heart surgery was carried out in Great Ormond Street Hospital and she woke up on Christmas Day after seven days of heartbreaking anxiety. Both Jacey and Phil cannot praise GOSH enough, the staff were hugely supportive and they were able to sleep at the side of Amelia’s cot. They brought her home on New Year’s Eve in the snow and thankfully she continues to thrive. She has regular checkups but now they seem happy with her progress.

The family have continued to support GOSH and in 2016 Amelia’s design was chosen by them as ‘the patient’s Christmas Card’ and large posters of Amelia and Thomas appeared in Sainsburys nationwide- Sainsbury’s are strong supporters of GOSH. When Amelia opened her eyes on Christmas Day after her surgery the staff said it was ‘the greatest gift’ and there was a rumour that she was the inspiration for the song on the 2016 Sainsbury advertisement sung by James Corden, although Sainsbury’s would not confirm this.

The family decided to move out of London and on a visit to relatives in Royston they came to look at a brand new house in Rupert Neve Close – they moved in August 2010, and Thomas was born in Addenbrooke’s in 2012. Jacey decided to be a fully hands on mum but eventually Thomas started at Little Hands and before long she had been persuaded to work there part time. She went back to College to get all the necessary qualifications and is now Senior Room Leader.

Phil was still taking the train to London everyday with a 2 ½ hour daily commute but towards the end of last year he left Wellcome and moved to Easy Jet in Luton working in Finance Systems. He now has a 45 minute drive to and from work and so far is enjoying the challenge.

Both have been involved in voluntary work – Phil has been Treasurer for Melbourn Primary School PTFA since 2016 and Jacey was on the PTFA from 2014 – 2016 doing a stint as Chairman. Both are on the Board of the company which runs Rupert Neve Close, a private road. Jacey has also worked on the Marie Curie fundraising group for Royston and District and is a Trustee of the Community Hall where she spent time as the Treasurer. All that as well as being very hands on parents to two lively youngsters.

Phil learned to play golf when he was eight; he was Junior Captain for Beaconsfield Golf Club and is famous in the club for having dropped Luke Donald from the Junior Team for not being a team player. Luke went on to be a world no. 1 golfer! Phil plays off a handicap of 8, he also plays tennis and was a very keen skier but now he says his family is his main hobby. Oh, and he also plays the piano and guitar. He is a massive Elvis fan and also likes the Beatles and ABBA.

Jacey, when asked about her hobbies, confessed to being the WORLD’S BIGGEST TAKE THAT FAN. She has an unhealthy obsession with Howard Donald and goes to all the concerts, recently travelling to Aberdeen to see Gary Barlow and she has tickets for the Take That Tour in London and Glasgow. She and a group of friends save money every month in order to follow the band and when possible they go for VIP treatment. I think she is secretly hoping that one day from the stage someone will mention them. It was Jacey’s idea to have a singalong showing of Mamma Mia as a fund raiser for the Community Hall two years ago and from that first cinema show has grown the monthly Melbourn Pop Up Cinema for which Jacey does all the graphics and prints the tickets, etc.

When pushed, she did agree that she liked cooking (she turns out traybakes at the drop of a hat) and the occasional Spa Daywith a lot of pampering, an evening at Bingo with her aunt and uncle and of course there is her charity work.

On the subject of films, I should mention that the top floor of their house has been converted into a home cinema with luxury reclining cinema seats, 3m screen, surround sound and a wine/beer fridge! Phil loves films and the home cinema is well used by adults and, of course, the children. He also enjoys photography but these days most of the photographs are understandably of the children.

I haven’t said much about the children, I have to be careful what I say as I am sure they would not want to be singled out at school but I will say that they are a credit to their parents and we always enjoy their company.

Jacey and Phil are doers. They get involved in village things and are not afraid to take on difficult or challenging roles. They love living in Melbourn and feel that everyone should give something back to the place in which they live. We need more young people like the Stewarts to take on roles in the community and allow we oldies to retire! Mavis Howard