Chapter 11

‘Never underestimate the vital importance of finding early in life the work that for you is play.’ Ken Robinson

Leaving school with just one ‘O level’ and a few CSE’s, with one being a grade four in maths, I realised I was never going to be much good as an invoice clerk working for the glass company Lax and Shaw’s on South Accommodation Road.

Thankfully mum and dad let me return to school to finish off my school education. Another three ‘O levels’ saw me in a better place, but going to college in 1980 didn’t quite work out and with a debt of £40, much less than the £50k many students have around their necks today I left, and with it my dreams of being a French teacher and interpreter. On leaving school for the second time I began work as a dental nurse in Holbeck, but that didn’t last long. The dentist at the time used to treat many Leeds United Football players. I remember goalkeeper John Lukic coming in and I called him David Harvey… not a great start. This remained my dentist until we moved to Bridlington in 2020, although the name changed many times. Now I have a private dentist and pay considerably for the privilege.

I was to spend a few years in sewing working for a number of Companies in Leeds including: SR Gents in Middleton; Cowpers in Harehills, and Tailors, off Dewsbury Road. I worked as a passer in quality control. I did quite enjoy it, but I wanted to do more with my life.

Going to work as a stockroom assistant for almost five years for the prestigious Dolcis shoes in 1984, has been my longest job ever. I loved my working life at Dolcis. I was good at creating room for stock where there was none, and I was a good leader; or at least I thought so. We had a great team working in the stockroom, and it felt like my very own.

In the latter half of the 1980s, Dolcis along with Schofield’s moved from Briggate to Lands Lane, one of the places to be at the time. Mike’s dad was Company Secretary at Schofield’s. I may have even passed him in the street – such is life. I had been destined to be promoted to stockroom manager when we moved to Lands Lane but a different store manager was appointed and she brought her own stockroom manager with her. I wasn’t upset by this. To be fair I had never expected to be the manager and so it wasn’t a big shock when this happened, and I soon settled down. It did help that I enjoyed working with everyone and we all got on really well. I was promoted to stockroom manager in 1989, but by this time I had ‘itchy feet’.

Realising earlier that year, I was the oldest at 26 working in the stockroom, I came to the conclusion if I was going to train to be a nurse, I had to do it now. A colleague of mine had left Dolcis earlier to train and honestly, I was probably a little jealous. My relationship with my manager was also fraught and I’d simply had enough. So, in 1989, I applied to two local hospitals to do my nurse training. I remember one of the interviews like it was only yesterday. It was an all-day event and we had to demonstrate through various games, our ability to problem solve, work together and build relationships. It was absolutely nerve wracking and particularly challenging being on show all day. The rest of my life could potentially be decided on how I performed. Well, I was offered a place, so I can’t have been that bad, but decided to take the place offered by the second one, because it was a relatively brand-new hospital.

So, in December 1989, I left Dolcis and with writing pad and pen in hands [we didn’t have computers and tablets back then] I walked into a classroom in the School of Nursing on 2nd January 1990 along with my fellow student nurses, and began my wonderful career as a nurse. And what a career it’s been.

I started at the time when the Hillsborough Football disaster was still very much in the news and continued to be so for decades to come. No-one, except those involved in the disaster can ever truly tell the story of the horror that unfolded that day and what it was like for those whose lives were changed forever.  

As a student I never had any real problems understanding the many diseases, conditions and illnesses that exist. In fact, I enjoyed learning about them so I could care for patients, but there was one condition I just couldn’t get my head around – diabetes. It was important I did, because if I couldn’t, I probably wouldn’t be any good as a nurse. Diabetes numbers, especially type two have increased beyond expectations, and it is now, more important than ever to know how to treat patients and to support those with the condition.

Anyway, one day I was in York and I visited an old book shop. In it there was a children’s book on diabetes and at my wits end I bought it. It was a great decision. Learning from a child’s perspective helped me understand the condition far better than anything I had learned previously and through this book, I was able to gain a firm grasp of the condition, thus probably saving my career.

Nursing for me, became an opportunity to develop beyond my expectations and I have never, for a single second, regretted training to be a nurse. From the age of 26, it has been my whole life. Nothing else will ever compare to life as a registered nurse. Nothing.

Is it a calling; a vocation, or simply a job. I’ll let you decide, along with the 758,000 nurses and nursing associates currently on the nursing register.