My First Blog: Getting to know me a little better
My Journey to Yoga
This is my first blog post and I thought I’d give you an insight into how I got to where I am now and help you understand why you can trust me to help you. As this is a story of 2 halves, I thought I’d not bore you all too much and would write this in 2 parts (I do love a story in 2 parts lol). The first part includes my nursing journey and the second is my yoga journey. I hope you enjoy my look back on my life.
For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to be a nurse. In fact, I can remember my father talking to someone (a friend of his I think), I’d be about 3 or 4 – pre school and I was asked the usual question, ‘And what do you want to do when you grow up?’ I of course answered with a ‘I’m going to be a nurse’. I can remember to this day the two men looking at each other and my Dad’s friend smiling and saying ‘Ah well there’s plenty of time for her to change her mind’! I just remember thinking, why on earth do they not think I’ll do it…….well I will.
So in 1980 I set off to start my training in a small hospital in Kendal – this hospital is no longer there but I do look back on that time with incredible fondness. It was hard but SO enjoyable. I visited Kendal recently and found the hospital was now a Care Home, the Nurses Home where I lived has now been converted into flats, but thank goodness the local pub is still there. So many memories, so many wonderful evenings spent there!
I trained as a State Enrolled Nurse and loved every minute of it. During this time I met my now husband and 6 months after completing my training we got married and moved to Middlesex where he was based in the Army.
During the following 18 or so years, we moved regularly, had 2 daughters and I ended up no longer nursing.
In the mid 1990’s my father was diagnosed with lung cancer and after only 5 months succumbed to it. I was devastated; I loved him dearly and still miss him. He had some wonderful care from the local District Nurses and Marie Curie Nurses. During his last few weeks I moved back home and was able to help look after him and am so grateful I was able to be with him and look after him in his last days. I also spent lots of time talking to the nurses caring for him and this reignited my passion for nursing.
So having had my passion re-ignited, when my husband eventually left the army I was lucky enough to be offered a place on a Return To Nursing programme to regain my registration. I completed this and started my journey back into nursing on a Haematology/Oncology ward. I started out as a Staff Nurse (bottom of the ladder) learning the skills needed to manage patients who have cancer, while all the time fulfilling my insatiable appetite for all knowledge on oncology. Over the next 5 years I worked on Oncology Wards and a Chemotherapy Unit, gaining a Degree in Nursing in the process with a slant toward Oncology and Palliative Care. Over the next 15 years I worked in various roles in Palliative Care in the Community and Acute Trusts, spending time as a Lung Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialist along the way, gaining a reputation as a sought-after mentor to junior staff and enjoying a good working relationship with all my patients. I loved this work and still do.
During this time I went on holiday one year with my husband and some friends to Mexico. Some of us enjoyed a yoga class on the beach each morning (it was hell lol!!!), I enjoyed it so much that when we returned home, I found a yoga class and started attending classes once or twice a week. And so started my yoga journey.