Philip Cleaver

Ten years ago, ill health hit 56-year-old Philip Cleaver from Castle Bromwich in the West Midlands. He was not only left with recurring heart problems but he also lost his livelihood. But now, after speaking to the Careers Advice Service, Philip's made a new start, in a new career as a voluntary coordinator - and is 100 per cent motivated.

Philip is very self-reliant and until his heart problems had had a varied working life. He was brought up in council-run children's homes around Birmingham and left to take an apprenticeship with a shoe repairer in Moseley when he was 15. At 17, the bright lights of London beckoned and he left the West Midlands behind to work as a barman in a pub in Whitechapel. But the glitter of the capital city didn't last long before Philip moved back into home territory as a timekeeper for a giftware company:

"I had a variety of jobs, but none that really suited me. So I decided to become a mature student nurse, working with the mentally handicapped. I qualified and enjoyed the caring aspects of the job but then, nine years later, I decided to do something I really wanted to do - run my own business!"

Philip started a security business and all went well until 1996, when he suffered a major heart attack. Two more attacks followed in quick succession and then to make things worse, as he was trying to recover, Philip's business failed:

"I learned a valuable lesson during that time: never to keep everything to yourself. I hadn't delegated anything to anyone, so when I keeled over, so did the business - no one else knew how everything worked."

But Philip isn't a man to stay down long. Two years ago, after extensive heart surgery and several mini-strokes, he decided he didn't want to give up and live on Incapacity Benefit for the rest of his life. He would do all he could to get back into work.

The problem was he'd been unemployed for so long that he'd lost his confidence. To ease himself back into a job, Philip offered himself as a volunteer to Victim Support and to the Terence Higgins Trust. He enrolled on a counselling course and IT courses, where he learned how to use Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Access, which he really enjoyed. Still looking for guidance on what sort of paid work he should be looking for, Philip made appointments with government-funded agencies that help people on Incapacity Benefit get back into work. He also tried investigating computer-based career-finding packages at the local library. But then he saw a TV advert for the Careers Advice Service - and things took a turn for the better.

"I telephoned the number advertised and spoke to an adviser. I explained my constraints and what aspects of work I enjoyed the most and within five minutes the adviser understood the whole picture. He was fantastic. He suggested that I go into personal development training. I could qualify as a trainer and study for the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) Certificate in Training Practices, starting with the Introduction course at Sutton Coldfield College."

"I was amazed - it was an ideal fit! I could work the hours that suited me and use the skills I'd learned in IT, active listening, counselling and emotionally supporting people. Personal development training is a developing area in the UK and something I felt could suit me. What made it better was that someone else thought so too!"

But things weren't to turn out as Philip had anticipated. Buoyed up by the enthusiastic support of his two daughters and 'the world's greatest wife', he looked into the college course, which was due to start a few months later, in September '06. Meanwhile, he started looking around at what might help him develop towards it. It transpired that social services and the NHS Trust were dealing with the areas that Philip wanted to work in. What's more, two jobs were advertised that met all his criteria:

"I applied for the jobs that week and was offered both of them a few days later. The hardest bit was deciding which one to turn down! One interview went so well that they asked me to run their new befriending service. I accepted and I'm now Volunteer Befriending Coordinator for the Family Care Trust in Solihull, looking after 23 matched befrienders. It's amazing. I'm actually doing something I really enjoy and my motivation is sky high. It's all thanks to the Careers Advice Service.

"Speaking to their advisers transformed my life. It gave me a focus and found me a career that's a perfect match for me. When you've been seriously ill it's hard to believe you can get back into work. Plus you always have a worry that your health will let you down. Now my confidence in myself has improved tremendously. The adviser pointed me in a direction I hadn't even thought about. Things have never been better."