Jason Steward (Jay) is a former military man who served on operations abroad in the Special Forces. He was born in London, but lived most of his childhood in Greece as the family emigrated there.
Jay joined the Parachute Regiment at 17, serving 12 years and trained to be an army pilot for the next 12 years. Altogether Jay has 24 years in the Army.
He joined the Great North Air Ambulance Service in 2011, and has been its Chief Pilot for the last 2 years.
He and his wife Julie purchased their house in Woodham in 2002 and have lived here since then (apart from a brief nine month spell in Hampshire when Jay was training to be a flying instructor). Their three children all went to Woodham Burn Community Primary School and Jay has been a governor at Woodham Primary since around 2003, but had to stop for a few years as he was busy with the Army. He re-joined in 2012 and was elected Chairman of Governors in 2014.
“I absolutely love it in the north east” said Jay but that is helped by the fact his wife of 23 years is from Newcastle. “I really didn’t enjoy living in the south for so many reasons, so finding Newton Aycliffe on the Internet in 2002 was a massive stroke of luck for us” he added.