Errol Thompson, Guardian Life's Insurance Adviser of the Year. - File

Growing up in an impoverished state-run home in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmore-land, during the 1950s, starved of most basic amenities, would have provided a good excuse for anyone wanting to give up on life.

But harsh living conditions were not enough to deter Errol Thompson, Guardian Life's Insurance Adviser of the Year, from making something of his life.

Life did not get off to a smooth start for young Thompson.

He was the lone survivor of a motor-vehicle crash that claimed the lives of both parents and two older siblings, in Kingston.

It happened when he was only six months old.

He was moved to Westmoreland soon after the accident, Thompson was told, probably in an effort to have relatives of his mother look after him, but instead he ended up in a state home for children.

"After the accident, nobody wanted me and I was thrown into what they call the poorhouse - without food, without clothes most of the time," Thompson recount.

"The primary school was just a few blocks from me and I couldn't go to school," he continues, making reference to the Revival Primary school a few miles outside of 'Sav'. It was the closest school at the time.

Attending Revival

Thompson had to wait until he was 13 years old before he could attend Revival.

"It was a policeman who took me and put me in school," he recalls.

His relationship with the policeman influenced him to later join the police cadets before assimilating into the force, where he remained for some years before leaving at the rank of corporal.

Shortly after leaving, Thompson was called back to act as a training instructor at the Twickenham Park police training school in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

Nearing retirement

"Commissioner (Francis) Forbes, Lucius Thomas, (Cornwall) 'Bigga' Ford - all those guys passed through me as an instructor," he recalled. He later left the force again, this time for the insurance industry, where he has remained for 26 years.

At age 59, Thompson, who is employed to the Premier Plaza branch of Guardian Life in Half-Way Tree, St Andrew, will become eligible for retirement soon, but he is now reconsidering all of that, given his most recent achievement at Guardian Life.

"My life is really a miracle." Thompson said.