The phone call that changed everything

Life Changing

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.6 • 735 Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jemma Bere had an unusual childhood. Her mum was a primary school teacher who chose to homeschool her so they could move around a lot. They lived on a boat in Turkey, travelled to Thailand, Bali and across Europe. In her teens they finally settled in Wales after her mum met a new partner. He was a big drinker and home life became a bit chaotic but they muddled along.

Jemma’s mum and stepdad moved to Spain in her second year of A-levels. By now the couple had two kids: Alex and Billie. Then, just as Jemma was doing her exams, her mum died, she’d been hit by a car. The children were looked after by their dad and an amazing nanny who kept everything together while he continued to drink. Jemma would visit all the time; by now she had started university, but the situation wasn’t brilliant and when the nanny had to leave to look after her sick mother everything fell apart.

At the age of 23, fresh out of university with no home of her own and no job, Jemma made a life-changing split-second decision. Many of her friends and some of her family thought she was crazy but Jemma was stubborn and stuck to her guns. She tells her story to Jane Garvey.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Eleven climbers appeared to have died on the world's second highest mountain K2.
0:06.0	It was one of the deadliest days in mountaineering history.
0:10.0	Rock falls, avalanches.
0:11.0	Huge pieces of ice. All are big enough to kill you.
0:14.0	He just flew out into Devoid and he was gone.
0:17.0	How did it all go so wrong?
0:19.0	And is it really worth risking death to feel alive? Why would
0:23.2	somebody pay to go to a place called the death cell on a vacation? Extreme, peak danger. With me,
0:29.9	Natalia Melman Petrazella. Listen to the full series now. First on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:39.9	Now this, I think, is a question that many of us have asked ourselves.
0:43.6	Would you be any good in a crisis?
0:45.9	Would you be the one who freezes or the one who takes charge?
0:49.2	And just how far would you be prepared to go to help out somebody else when things get really tough? My guest today
0:55.7	is Gemma Beer. She knows exactly how she'd react. When her family was in crisis, she got a phone
1:02.2	call and made a split second decision that would impact the rest of her life. Gemma lives in
1:08.0	Brecken in Wales and we'll start at the beginning of course
1:11.5	as she was growing up with a mum
1:13.1	who you might describe as a bit of a free spirit
1:15.8	We travelled around a lot
1:17.7	She was a teacher
1:18.5	And I was homeschooled for the majority of my childhood
1:22.5	She thought that it was just a fantastic experience
	...

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