Client Profile: Marianne and Jane

By Jane Johnson

After long careers in the NHS, Marianne Horsley and Jane Burrage are having the time of their lives – and travel is at the top of their agenda.

Marianne stared down at the ice-cold sea. A seasoned traveller, she was in the Antarctic – her most ambitious trip yet – about to plunge into deep, sub-zero waters, a line from the cruise ship tied around her waist, just in case. Meanwhile, Jane, her partner of 19 years, was safely aboard the vessel, also enjoying something chilled – a lovely glass of her favourite champagne. Marianne says: ‘This was the pinnacle of any travel I’d ever done – a dip in the sea in the Antarctic. As a retired GP, I had been a bit worried as I eyed the defibrillators on the back deck.

“Have you ever needed to use one?” I asked the captain. He laughed and said they had not. So that convinced me. “If I am not going to die, I have to do this,” I thought. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and as I jumped into the freezing water, the crew and other guests cheered me on.’

Marianne, a committed swimmer, began her medical training in 1986 before becoming a GP. She describes the work as ‘rewarding, but intense’. Forty years later, now in her 60s, she was pursuing the ambition of a lifetime, an 11-day cruise in the Antarctic aboard a ship described as ‘six-star luxury’, watching Emperor penguin colonies and whales ‘almost at touching distance’ and jumping into icy water as pop music blared and everyone encouraged her.

‘I was only in the water for less than a minute. It was enough! It was bone chillingly cold and I was glad to climb out and be enveloped in a warm robe with a cup of hot chocolate minutes later. Bliss!’ she says, smiling at the memory.

Another incredible experience from the cruise was taking a helicopter trip to see the A23a iceberg.

The couple witnessed the giant ice mass, which is twice the size of London, begin its journey northwards once again. When Marianne retired from the NHS in June 2021, friends and colleagues told her she would be bored, perhaps underestimating her sense of adventure. ‘I have never looked back,’ says Marianne. Jane also worked in the NHS and retired as Head of Medical HR for the Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust in December 2012 after 30 years, when she was 57.

The couple had married two years before in a beautiful New Forest lodge – both were divorced from their ex-husbands and met through their health sector jobs. ‘I had been worried I would miss my work colleagues after retiring, but I was exhausted. Like all GPs, I worked far too many hours each day. It takes the joy out of the job,’ explains Marianne. ‘Retiring turned out to be the best thing I ever did.’ In fact, retirement has meant that Marianne and Jane have been able to follow their shared passion for travelling the world together. So far, the couple has taken a train across the Canadian Rockies, cruised down the rivers Danube and Douro, and explored Alaska and the Antarctic.

In the last couple of decades, they have ticked off an impressive number of trips to far-flung destinations, visiting friends in Thailand and family in Costa Rica, trekking in Nepal, seeing ancient temples in Vietnam and Cambodia, orangutans and rainforest in Borneo, and elephants in Sri Lanka.

They have also been on safari to South Africa, taken a 12-week road trip through New Zealand and Australia, soaked up beach life in the Maldives and explored the colourful Marrakech souks.

For Jane, the attraction of travel is escaping the responsibilities of life. ‘There’s always something to do at home; it’s virtually impossible to relax,’ she explains. Marianne believes travel has opened her eyes, saying, ‘It puts you and your place in the world in perspective – there are all these other countries, peoples and cultures, all these other histories. I am fascinated by how empires rise and fall – seeing the temples in Cambodia, you realise what a powerful, advanced civilisation they had in the early 12th century.’

Inspired by The Salt Path, a memoir by Raynor Winn, Marianne has also taken on another challenge – walking the UK’s 630-mile South West Coastal path, in all weathers, with four close friends. She says it motivates her to keep fit after so many years of sitting at a desk, and she loves exploring the wild Cornish coast.

They credit their ability to travel so extensively not only to their years of hard work – 65 in total between them – but also to the advice their long-term Financial Planner, Michael Reidy, has given them at Attivo. As Marianne says: ‘It has hugely helped facilitate the trips. I had an NHS pension, which was complicated, and the advice from my Financial Planner saved me thousands. It was the most amazing advice I have had in all my 62 years.’

Michael has now retired, so his colleague Tom Bate is giving them financial guidance. ‘Tom has told us that because we have scrimped and saved all these years, now we can go out and spend it. So, we have been taking that advice and booked all these trips!’ says Marianne. As much as they love travelling, they enjoy being at home and spend most summers in their four-bedroom house in Hove, East Sussex, with Marianne swimming every day in their outdoor heated pool and playing bowls with her local team. She describes the game as a ‘calming antidote to a busy life’.

The advice from my Attivo Financial Planner has saved me thousands

Meanwhile, Jane tends to their beautiful garden or fires up the BBQ, and she is partial to a rib-eye steak. She is also the homing lead for the Brighton branch of Cats Protection. Talking about some of her current four-legged wards, she says, ‘Nine-year-old Bella went to her new home this morning, and her brother Eddie is going to an indoor foster carer soon as we don’t have a home for him yet.’ While Jane loves travelling, she admits she is happiest in their garden. ‘I find it relaxing, pottering about. I get a sense of satisfaction when people tell me it looks nice,’ she says.

The couple feels privileged to have two other places they call home. One is a fine maroon and yellow, 55-foot barge called Wyleaway, which is moored on the Trent and Mersey Canal and where they spend time with friends every Easter and summer, watching the world go by as they float gently down the Staffordshire canals. Marianne’s family lived on the same canal and spent all their holidays when they were young on her father Cyril’s barge, The Flower of Colwich.

‘Barging on the canals makes me feel healthy and alive,’ says Marianne. ‘We sleep better, feel healthier, and are calmer and happier. On top of that, you will meet lots of people and see the lovely countryside. On our most recent trip, I took the boat through the locks without crashing anything,’ adds Jane, smiling. ‘And, after some of the scrapes I have had, that is a pretty big achievement!’.

The couple also spends some of their time in a family apartment in the pretty little Costa del Sol town of Nerja, where Marianne’s parents have owned a second home since 1987. But back to the ice-cold Antarctic plunge. What was it actually like? ‘You can see from our photos the look of total shock on my face,’ says Marianne. ‘But I felt elated afterwards – it was an accomplishment. And I thought this feeling is what I have earned after 35 years as a doctor. This is my success.’

Words by Jane Johnson.

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