We took a grown-up GAP YEAR!

Who says taking time out is just for students?

- KATE CHAPMAN

Travelling changed my outlook on life'

Julie Hutchison, 53, is a leadership and team performance coach, and lives in Salisbury, Wiltshire, with her husband, Ronnie, 49, and their children Alex, 17, and Kirsty, 13.

I'd been to university, and taken a gap year in industry, but felt I had worked hard while others travelled. I was on a career path to sergeant with Hertfordshire Police. While I was at a police rehabilitation centre with an injured foot, another officer invited me to go travelling. I'd just gone through a relationship break-up and thought to myself, 'Let's do it!'

She suggested places like Laos and Vietnam. Embarrassingly, I didn't even know where they were, but I decided there had to be more to life, so I agreed to go. In November 2000, we left for India on a career break, with a 12-month round-the-world ticket, a backpack and walking boots. Family, friends, and colleagues thought I was bonkers to be doing it at almost 30, but they supported me.

We arrived in Delhi in the middle of the night, where a 'taxi' scammed us out of a fortune to go to the wrong hotel, so we quickly learnt to be much savvier. We explored India and Nepal - a highlight for me - it was beautiful, peaceful and carefree. I walked, ate lots of dal and enjoyed the simplicity.

Eventually, we went our separate ways, and I visited Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Australia, meeting fascinating people, sharing a boat on the Mekong River with chickens, and trekking in Nepal's Annapurna Mountains.

Travelling gave me a different outlook. I learnt what I loved, what I didn't, and how I wanted to live my life. I returned to the police but also trained as a leadership coach and workplace mediator, and eventually started my own business in 2013.