Woman's Weekly

Beginning of a NEW ERA

‘I took a chance on myself, and I’m so pleased I did’

Amanda Wheal, 59, lives in Essex.

‘Congratulations!’ I wrote, under the social media post. It was August 2021, and James and Paige, former pupils of mine, had announced their engagement on Instagram. When they got in touch a few weeks later to ask me to marry them, it was the icing on the cake.

I’d spent over 30 years as a secondary school teacher and loved my job. But in 2018, when I wondered if there were new things I could try in life, I told my brother Roger, then 65, I was thinking of a change. He was my confidant

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