By the time I came to leave home and start my nurse training, my mum was right. I did not want to go. I was leaving a really secure, tight group of friends, a really secure environment where I knew everyone and everyone knew me. And I was one of the first to do it. None of my friends were at that point where they were going to university yet.
I am slightly embarrassed to tell you the next part. I clearly remember my mum and dad dropping me off at the Nurses’ home…. I cried like a baby and begged my mum not to leave me. I just felt so utterly alone and so out of my depth, I just felt like a really small fish in a really, really big pond. I know I must have broken her heart that day. But there I was, one minute I was gallivanting around town thinking I was pretty cool. Then the next day I was just a big overgrown baby sobbing and begging my mum not to leave me.
Well, I made it through, and as you do, made friends. I saw a whole new world, gay people, people from different countries, people who looked different, people who spoke differently. I mean, it was a revelation and a really exciting time again!
When I completed my nurse training, I was lucky enough to be offered a job on a ward that I had worked on as a student nurse. And that workplace was quite an incredible experience, really.
The reason it was so incredible, I think, was because of the strong leadership from the sisters that ran the ward. It was fun, it was hard work, it was teamwork, it was caring, it was chaotic at times, but the ethos of the ward was definitely around respect. The sisters were respected by the hierarchy because they ran such a tight ship. And that respect was also reflected in patient care. I just felt that I had the most incredible role models on that ward, and I wanted to be like them. I aspired to be like them, because they were strong, kind, intelligent, and fun. Just everything that I wanted to be and had all the qualities that any nurse would aspire to be.
I really, honestly to this day, feel privileged to have worked with them. I feel that experience made a real mark on my future.
However, the downside of working somewhere so incredible, is that you do quickly realize that the scope for moving up the ranks is limited.
Who is going to leave? No one is going anywhere in a hurry.
The way that the NHS is structured, means you can end up in a situation where you are ‘acting up’, taking on responsibilities and roles beyond your official and paid capacity, which is no doubt great experience, but for me I needed to see that I could move up.
So, I sidestepped at that point, I took a role in the Occupational Health department at Barts. I moved off the wards and into more of an office environment. It was a brand new role as a Practice Nurse and that made it quite challenging, because I had to develop the role and create all the protocols that went along with it.
I was still at Bart’s, which made me happy because that was the place that I had very much grown to love, I loved being there. Working in that hospital environment, as most of you will know, there is something special about it.
My next move after that was to move into General Practice. I felt that the role within the Occupational Health would be a stepping stone.
I moved to a practice in East London. Actually this experience I would say, took me back a little bit to feeling intimidated. I felt like I knew nothing, I suppose because in that context I really did. I was almost starting all over again with everything. I had to work really hard to get the experience racked up quickly, and try and increase my education so that I could become a useful Practice Nurse, a good Practice Nurse, an efficient Practice Nurse.
Finally I left that place and I moved eventually to another General Practice in East London as well.
This was actually just a single handed practice when I first got there and built up over the years.
I actually ended up becoming a Nurse Partner here. It was one of those things that just happened along the way. It was still a relatively new concept at that time to have nurse partners and it did not last long. It was a tough experience and it did not go well. I untangled myself as quickly as I could from that partnership, as soon as I realized that it was not bringing anything positive to my life. And then again, I guess, I was at another crossroads now.
The practice I had been a partner of wanted me to stay with them, but that just felt weird. And then moving to a new general practice, I felt like it could be going from frying pan into a fire. If you work in general practice, you will know that each practice is run like a small business. Although things are more consistent across the board now, they are still quite varied from practice to practice. By this time I had started to dabble in the world of aesthetics, and I decided I would hand my notice in, and I would divide my time between doing locum work in several of the practices that I had become very well known, and that would give me the freedom to be able to put more energy, and thinking, and planning into the aesthetics work.
Eventually in 2014, myself and my partner, made the huge decision that we would really give the aesthetics a big push, having established a small and regular client base around the City area.
We took on a lease for a commercial premises. It was a massive decision for us financially. It did mean that we could not move out of the flat that we live in, but we both felt that it was also a really exciting opportunity. It was a measured risk.
I remember telling my Dad the plan at the time. It is fair to say he was not the best Dad in the world, but when I told him I was planning to open my premises, unlike most Dads, he just could not get his head around the concept. ‘Tell me again’, he said on more than one occasion ‘people are going to pay to see you??’ Not exactly what I wanted to hear but that was his reaction. He had zero confidence in my plan or my ability, but I did it anyway. We did it! Five years down the line, I am still doing it!
I have stopped the locum work now altogether, which just happened because I got busier, it was not necessarily a conscious decision.
I am now fully immersed in the business. I offer my aesthetic services from the clinic, and I also rent out clinical space to other therapists that are offering non-aesthetic treatments. Things are going really well. I earn enough money to live on, and the income each year is growing and growing. It is a really exciting place to be and there is still more to come!
So, that is my story.
I wanted you to understand my background in all of this before we go any further because I think it is really important for you at this point to understand that I am a very ordinary person. I was not borne into money, I was not overly ambitious when I was young, no plan as such. I certainly was not particularly confident, and I definitely did not have parents that told me I could do anything. In fact, quite the opposite really. But I did it anyway.
So, I really hope that some of this has resonated with you and that you are ready for this journey to start!
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