Helping Hands Home Care (Fareham)

About me

From a very young age, I had always wanted to nurse and care for the sick.

I would dress up and bandage my teddies (and my dad!) and was obsessed with the television programme Angels. This passion drove me to begin my career in care.

After working in the NHS for over 20 years I was always amazed at the dedication and enthusiasm of the carers, and none more so as those that work for Helping Hands.
They all come with their own unique set of personal and professional skills and adapt to the individual needs of the customer, in particular those with Dementia and the challenges they present.

During my downtime, I enjoy spending time with my new husband. We were together during secondary school but our careers took us in different directions when we left. Five years ago we reconnected via Facebook and married in June 2021. My two sons are my absolute world and I am extremely proud of both of them. I love getting together, walking our dog Rodney and then having a takeaway and board games. We are all quite competitive so it always ends up as a very noisy, fun evening.

Experience and expertise

I started my career in care when I was 18 years old and qualified as a Nursery Nurse at Eastleigh college in 1986.
After I had my first son in 1992 I joined a domiciliary care agency as it offered me the flexibility of working around my family. From this, I became a healthcare support worker on an orthopaedic ward in the NHS.
I had my second son in 1998 and two years later commenced my midwifery training.

I practised as a high-risk obstetric midwife for 18 years delivering more than 1000 babies.

The recent pandemic put a real strain on the staff in the NHS and many of us used this opportunity to re-evaluate our careers.

I had considered becoming a domiciliary care manager many times but was quite anxious about taking that leap - however, I am so glad I did.

I bring to my role a wealth of health and social care knowledge and thoroughly enjoy sharing and teaching new skills to my carers.

Why I chose Helping Hands

I chose to work for Helping Hands as I was so impressed with the training and development opportunities the carers are given. These come in the form of mandatory e-learning and face-to-face training and assessments, but the company also supports and encourages in-house progression and promotion.

I see my main role as a Branch Care Manager as being to keep all my staff and customers safe, whilst growing a healthy, productive business. This balancing act is an area in which I thrive, and I enjoy taking on new businesses, enabling more families to have access to a great team.

I absolutely love being part of a team. My office colleagues are strong, skilled capable individuals that have a broad range of skills and knowledge in the care sector.

Having a reliable team to laugh (and cry), share, debrief and lean on during high and low times is invaluable, and I am so proud of all my staff and consider myself very lucky.