Michael Thomas Wharton was born in 1984 in Manchester’s St Mary’s hospital. He was raised in Failsworth Oldham, attending St Mary’s primary school until, at age 9, he moved with his family to Earley Reading. Here Michael attended Aldryngton Primary school and then later Maiden Erlegh Secondary school. Aged 15, his family upped sticks again and took a fantastic 6 month tour of Europe for some hands on education. After this voyage of discovery in a caravan, his family ended up staying in Donegal Ireland with his Mother’s family for Christmas. They all liked it in Ireland, and ended up deciding to stay, so they bought a house in Ballybofey and Michael attended St. Columba’s College.
From the age of 16 Michael Wharton started working part-time on farms, as well as selling potatoes on the side of the road. After graduating from school, he decided that he really wanted to go back to Manchester, to study at University. To do this Michael took a year out to earn money, by working full time at a local factory called Mulrine’s. It was hard manual work, and he did as much overtime as he could, cycling to and from work on neglected country roads.
Michael Wharton moved back to Manchester at the age of 19, to go to university there. University life was a lot different to high school, or working in the factory. He made some great friends, and learnt a lot about how the world works. Michael left University after studying English, Philosophy and Sociology which gave him an in depth understanding of society, politics, and of course, writing skills. He began working two part time jobs, as both waiter and barman for Gilds Associates, as well as indoor security for Ambassador Events. Working two part time jobs for temp agencies was stressful, so he searched for something full time and stable…
Michael Wharton was then ensnared in a pyramid marketing scheme calling itself by many names, such as G-Force Marketing, Primus UK, Pro-Sales, Cobra… the list goes on. After burning out from working 72 hr weeks, for 8 months straight, Michael changed down a gear or five, and became a charity fund-raiser for HomeFundraising. Transferring his sales and marketing skills towards much more deserving causes felt great. Michael represented charities such as the Association for International Cancer Research (AICR) and Leonard Cheshire Disability. He learnt a lot about how charities operate, some are amazing but others can be horrifically mismanaged. Michael changed companies shortly before the downfall of Homefundraising, which was managed pretty poorly, to work for Face2Face fund-raising. Big leap I know! Michael was stuck on the idea of doing a job that was morally beneficial!
Due to poor numbers of new sign ups, in 2008, there was low economic turnover due to the general economy, Michael Wharton retrained to become a care assistant. Michael never actually got to work as a care assistant however, despite being fully qualified, he did not drive. Having an NVQ1 in care, First Aid, Food & Hygeine Certificate and everything he needed to be a carer, his lack of a driving license was a major barrier. He was actually hired by a company called Claimar Care (the only company willing to hire non drivers with no experience), who sent him on their in house training program, but then lost two photocopies of his passport, back to back. After finally completing a DBS enhanced disclosure (squeaky clean apparently!), Michael Thomas Wharton was all set to start work, when the company was taken over by another larger company. Their HR team had no record of me being an employee, insisting that I must apply for any open positions from the beginning, but that they would only hire qualified carers with a full UK driving license!