Louise’s story

Louise* loved her part time job working in a nursing home earning some cash whilst she was studying at University. Her course wasn’t related to nursing and when it ended she was sad to think that she would have to stop the job too. So after encouragement from her colleagues at the nursing home, she took the plunge and started her nursing degree.

“Something about nursing just clicked with me. Caring for other people seemed the most natural job in the world for me to be doing. Once I realised that, I never looked back.”

Louise qualified in 2005 and worked as a Staff Nurse in her local hospital. She loved the variety of her job and felt she had definitely made the right decision.

Unfortunately, Louise’s partner was becoming increasingly abusive towards her – physically, emotionally and financially – and a couple of years ago her life turned upside down. Louise made the courageous decision to leave her partner, taking her young children with her – it was her last resort.

“I just had to get out. Me and the children weren’t safe in that house and I had no choice but to leave the house one day and never go back.”

Louise and the children arrived at a Women’s Refuge with just a bag of clothes and one toy each for the children. The Refuge quickly found her somewhere to live but it meant moving hundreds of miles from her hometown so she had to give up her job and leave her friends. She was faced with starting her life over again from scratch and building a home for her children. The family received help from the council and obtained furniture, a fridge and washing machine but Louise couldn’t work as she was caring for the children so struggled to buy essential day-to-day things like towels, cutlery, saucepans and curtains.

Cavell was able to help and quickly enabled Louise to buy these things to start making her new house into a home. Louise is also very keen to restart her nursing career so Cavell enabled her to fund her NMC registration costs. She is taking the first few steps back towards being a nurse again.

“The help and support I’ve received from Cavell has made a huge difference to me and my children at a very difficult time. It was so embarrassing to ask for help but having done it I would urge any nurses, midwives or healthcare assistants to be brave and take the step. You will not be judged. ”

“I’ve given so much during my nursing career and I’m so grateful to know that Cavell is there for me if I need help.”

*Name has been changed

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