My Life: Janet Storey

Pic courtesy of Lancashire Evening Telegraph

A FULL-TIME sales executive and mother-of-five should have her work cut out. Yet Hyndburn's first citizen — 53-year-old grandmother Janet Storey still finds time to serve her community as a councillor and Mayor. Janet, a Clayton-le-Moors ward councillor has been married to Philip, her Consort, for the past 23 years. HyndburnLife caught up with the busy Mayor for the first instalment of My Life.

Q. What time do you usually get up?

A. Around 6.30am because we have a new labrador puppy and we have to make sure we let it out before any accidents occur!

Q. What's your daily routine?

A. I usually start work at 8.30pm. I am a cruise consultant for The Cruise Store, based at Accrington’s Globe Centre and don't get home until 7pm. My managers are fantastic with me. If I walk in the morning with my hat they know I'll have to attend a civic function during my normal working day and they always accommodate it. The company has given me the flexibility to work as a councillor and now as Mayor. I feel quite privileged that it was never a question of the job or becoming Mayor.

Q. What do you love about the role?

A.I love both my job and role as a Mayor because I get to meet and  talk to so many different and wonderful people. When I tell people they’re booking their cruise with the Mayor they think it's really great. Being Mayor is a chance at last to spend time with my husband, who is  my consort. The one thing I promised my husband when we got married  was that he’d never be bored.

A couple of weeks ago I met Curtis Jobling, the creator of Bob the Builder, who came to Rishton. It was really funny because he looked  just like Bob and my grandson adores him. He did me a picture which was fantastic.

I also had the privilege of meeting a marvellous man who was 105 years old a couple of months ago and he was brilliant. He was  completely with it and could remember the Titanic sailing and the beginning of the First World War even though he was just 14. He was an inspiration and his name was Netherwood which his mother chose because it meant a wood that will never grow old.

Q. What's the strangest thing that has ever happened to you?

A. I took part in a 'Luge' in Germany which involved me risking life and limb to raise money for the British Scouts by launching myself  down the side of a mountain on a tin tray. It was very dangerous but I didn't think about it at the time. I'm a bit daft when it comes to things like that. I was also at an event recently when a child came up to me and said ‘I like your chain Mrs’ children are wonderful, they bring you back down to earth.

Q What has been your proudest moment?

A. Becoming Mayor has to be one of them as well as my children and grandchildren. My life has involved quite a bit of travel as my husband did 22 years in the Army, so I left Great Harwood when I was 20 and travelled the world with him for 19 years. We lived in Germany, Cyprus, different parts of the UK and probably one of the most exotic postings the British Army could offer — Scunthorpe. As an Army wife you’re very often a single mum for a lot of the time. One year I had four children under six in Germany and I saw my husband Philip for just 56 days. Philip had tours of duty in Northern Ireland 
and the first Gulf War. When he came back with his medals I was very proud.

Q. What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?

A. My grandmother died when I was 12. She was a suffragette and spent time in Lancaster Prison. She was widowed after the First World War. She was a very small woman, 5ft 2in, married four times, and always very smart, always outspoken. My grandmother and mother advised me to have a career because if you have your independence, you’ve got everything. My mother was a very independent soul. In the Depression she was 18 and packed her bags to go to London to find work.

I will fight for anything that’s right. I wasn’t your standard Army wife. I was a member of the Federation of Army Wives in the ’70s. They didn’t expect wives to be educated and opinionated and I upset quite a lot of people. I refused to be known as ‘24176288 wife of Storey.’

I’ve learnt a lot from my mum, who was married for 55 years. She used to say if you want something out of your husband - never ask - just  plant the suggestion and it worked for her as she never asked for a thing. My husband is good like that because if I've ever come up with a daft suggestion he's always been there right behind me.