A daughter inspired by watching kind-hearted NHS medics successfully treat her dad’s cancer has quit engineering to start an adult nursing degree.
Chantel Ward, 47, had spent the last two decades working for an engineering company when she witnessed the care given to her father George as he needed treatment for prostate cancer during the Covid pandemic.
Now he has fully recovered but his care by staff at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust left an imprint on Chantel and her family.
Now the mum-of-three is one year into her Adult Nursing degree at Coventry University and she hopes when she has finished she too can make a difference to others’ lives.
She said: “My dad had been diagnosed with cancer, I had been married for 20 years and I felt like my life was going in the wrong direction.
“I wanted to do something for myself, to achieve something and that is why I decided to start this journey.
“The treatment my dad received was second to none. It spurred me on to join the NHS and hopefully achieve what the staff achieved with my dad and make a difference.”
Chantel says age is not a barrier to education, remarking: “Going back into education, maths was my biggest fear, but I’ve overcome that now through support from the university.
“I’ve found that age does not come into it at all. Everyone on the nursing course is all on the same journey. We all come from different walks of life, have our ups and downs, and we support each other.
“It has been a rough ride for me in my personal life but I’m here, I’m doing my nursing degree and making my family proud.”
Chantel is currently on placement on the respiratory wards at UHCW and shared her advice to anyone thinking of pursuing a career in nursing.
She went on: “If anyone wants to go into nursing, I think the key skills they will need are effective communication, empathy, listening and being a caring person.
“The people you are caring for are in an environment that no-one wants to be in. So you need to make it as comfortable as possible for them.
“My advice to anyone thinking about going into nursing or making a change this New Year is simple – do it. Surround yourself with supportive people and just do it.”
