Jan Flawn, President of the Rotary Club of the Brickhills, has been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List with a CBE for services to the care home business and charitable fundraising.
Jan is a registered nurse and founder of independent healthcare provider, PJ Care. She is also heavily involved with the brain injury charity Headway, supporting branches in Milton Keynes and Cambridgeshire. She is a prominent supporter of The Care Workers Charity, the benevolent fund for the care sector, which is PJ Care’s charity of the year for 2014.
Jan said: “I am overwhelmed and honoured to receive this award. Since I went into nursing, all I ever wanted to do was care for people in the best way I can. So it is wonderful to be recognised by the Queen for both my work in healthcare and with charities.”
Jan’s company runs three specialist neurological care centres which provide treatment and rehabilitation for conditions including motor neurone disease, young onset dementia, Huntington’s disease, acquired brain injuries and spinal injuries. She opened her first centre in Milton Keynes in 2001, a second in 2005 and her third in Peterborough in 2012.
Jan decided to open her own care centre after seeing young people with neurological conditions receiving inappropriate treatment in care homes for the elderly. Many of the buildings were cramped, dark and unsuitable for young patients’ complex clinical needs. “I wanted to provide a facility that would give more freedom to these young people,” said Jan. “Care isn’t just about keeping people alive, it’s about giving them a quality of life.”
