She says: “My last job was working for a logistics company operating all over the EU, but I was looking for something different. My family all said I should move into care because I’m
a very loving person, and over the years I have tried to take care of people and look after them.”
Now a self-employed live-in carer who is matched with clients through introduction agency Patricia White’s, she reveals: “I took my family’s advice and I’m so happy I did – I’ve found my vocation. Being a live-in carer means I can get to know the client quicker and therefore better understand their needs and so can help them more.”
Her present long-term assignment in Berkshire, looking after a woman in her 90s, has demonstrated just how much she can help: “I was first brought in for palliative care, a few months after the lady had undergone chemotherapy. At the time they did not think she had more than a couple of months to live. Since then there’s been no sign of cancer and she’s been going from strength to strength – a vast improvement and a better quality of life.
“The family have been kind enough to say that the way I and her other carer look after her has played a part in that improvement. And a visitor recently took us aside to say the client was full of praise for us. That’s nice to hear.”
French-born Maddy lived in South Africa before moving to the UK 16 years ago and now calls Bognor Regis home. She says: “It seems obvious but you have to have a lot of love for people to be a carer.” She adds: “My approach is always to think to myself: if I was the client, how would I want to be treated, and I work on from there.”