From a young age, I knew that I wanted to become a nurse and this became a reality at the age of 18 when I trained as a Registered Nurse. I loved caring for people and quickly realised that this was my vocation. My work on surgical wards was very challenging and at the same time immensely rewarding. I then had an opportunity to work in the operating theatres and soon found that this was where I wanted to be. I remained there for 16 years and during that time I met my husband, an anesthetist, who is now retired.

I left nursing at the age of 34 when I was expecting my second child and I have been a stay-at-home mum until 2016 when my passion to care for others led me back into work in the Care Sector. The main inspiration behind this was my maternal grandmother. Having lost both my parents when I was 28 and being the oldest and only female in the family, I took on the role of caring for her.

My grandmother was a very independent lady, who was able to manage most things until she reached her 90’s. She started to forget things and I soon realised that this was the onset of dementia. We managed things very well, however, even when she started wandering outside: although I do remember having to call the police on one occasion.

Eventually, we made the agonising decision to find a care home for her. I researched many and visited around 20. It broke my heart, but with two young children, I didn’t know what else to do. We felt that this was the best option, not realising that there were other choices available to us such as Live-in Care. After about 9 months of being in the care home, I started to feel uncomfortable and told my brother that I was not happy and wanted to explore other options. One Sunday I collected my granny from the care home to have a family lunch at our house. Whilst at home with me, she became unwell and collapsed. She was admitted to the hospital and was found to be suffering from a severe urine infection that caused sepsis.

This is something that should have been picked up by the Care Home staff. I feel it definitely should not have been allowed to develop into sepsis, without symptoms being spotted by the staff who were directly caring for her.

My dear granny never went back to the care home, because whilst in hospital she contracted a Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection and sadly died 10 weeks after admission.

Following granny’s death, I began to raise awareness of the lethal infection she had contracted and formed a support group to help patients who were suffering from C. diff something that I still do to this day. My passion to promote awareness led to me raising funds for Healthcare Acquired Infection, the C. diff Support Group. I raised £28,000 which was donated to the Centre for Healthcare Acquired Infections who are based at the University of Nottingham.

Helping charities is very important to me, my eldest son, who is now 36, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia at the age of 16 months. Without research, he would not be here today and this is the reason that Vita Cura has made the decision to make a donation each year to charities such as Alzheimers UK, Age Concern, etc.

I hope that by reading my story, you will see how important caring for our elderly population is to us at Vita Cura and as co-owner I will ensure that we deliver on our mission statement, to provide quality, safe and compassionate care for your loved one.