Mum who lost eight-year-old son qualifies as nurse thanks to pioneering training scheme

Nation Cymru staff

A mum who nearly abandoned her nursing dream after her eight year old son died has qualified as one of a record eight new nurses at a care organisation.

Sarah Hughes, 35, from Felinheli, was in the middle of applying for the nurse course at Pendine Parak when her son Gwion passed away in 2021.

She had planned to pull out but her partner Darrel urged her to complete the online interview – and she went on to qualify after four years of study.

Sarah is among eight care workers from Pendine, which has nine homes in Wrexham and Caernarfon, to become newly-qualified nurses through the organisation’s pioneering “grow your own” scheme, the biggest cohort since the programme began.

All eight graduates completed four-year Bachelor of Science nursing degrees through the Open University while continuing to work at Pendine’s care homes.

They combined their jobs with university study and community placements across North Wales while also juggling family life and other responsibilities.

Mario Kreft MBE, who founded Pendine Park with his wife Gill in 1985, said: “Pendine has always believed in offering our staff opportunities and when the opportunity for this nursing training course came, it was an opportunity too good to be missed.

“We’re the only care organisation that does this type of nurse training in North Wales.

“In Wales as a country we have often been remiss in not using the opportunities that exist within the care sector to grow and develop our own qualified nurses.

“Working with the Open University, we have found that opportunity, and I passionately believe this is a route that everybody involved in social care or responsible for it should seriously look at because social care nursing in itself is a speciality.

“We need to harness these special people who work in social care, and many of them, given the support and opportunity, will become the nurses of tomorrow.

“Of course, becoming a nurse is not the right career path for everybody, and we should never lose sight of the invaluable contribution made by our 500 carers, who are quite simply the backbone of our care homes and the people who make such a difference to the lives of the residents we look after.”

Four of the new nurses are based at Bryn Seiont Newydd care home in Caernarfon, including Sarah.

She said she almost withdrew from the training programme because of the tragic death of eight-year-old Gwion in 2021.

Gwion had Strep B Meningitis when he was born and suffered from cerebral palsy, epilepsy and blindness and was on oxygen 24 hours a day.

Sarah, who has daughters Maia, 11, and six-year-old Neli with partner Darrel, said: “I think Gwion was the inspiration for me to apply for the nursing.”

“I started off as a carer and then became a clinical care practitioner and then applied to do the nursing.

“But in the middle of the interview stages my son passed away.

“I actually said I wasn’t going to carry on with the interview stage after that, but Darrel pushed me to log in that day and do the online interview – and here we are.

“Darrel said ‘you will regret it if you don’t, so please do it’, so I did.

“I am so glad he pushed me that day.”

Sarah, who has worked at Pendine Park for nearly 10 years, added: “Being a nurse, you have a lot more responsibility and it is down to you to make clinical judgements.

“The course was hard at times, and it could be stressful but it was all definitely worth it in the end.”

Meanwhile, the other four new nurses are based at Pendine Park’s homes in Wrexham.

Courteney Jones, 25, works at the group’s Bryn Bella home, starting off as a teenage “breakfast girl” before progressing her career in care.

She was inspired to be a nurse by her late mother Julie, who was a nurse at Pendine Park and sadly passed away as Courteney was starting her own nursing career.

Courteney, from Wrexham, said: “I joined Pendine straight from college where I did childcare.

“My mum was working at Pendine as a nurse, and suggested I should give social care a try.

“I started as a breakfast girl, doing breakfasts, doing drinks and joining in with the activities with the residents.

“I then became a carer at 18 and then applied for the nursing course, I was only 19, I think I am the youngest in the group.

“My mum passed away in 2021 before I started the nurse training, that was very difficult, she was only 54.

“My mum was the inspiration for me to do the nursing and to carry on.”

Courteney, who is expecting a child with partner Callum, said juggling her care work with her studies was a challenge but said Pendine were a great help.

She said: “Work was really flexible, and really supportive and worked around my placements, and I just cracked on.

“We had dedicated study days which helped and it was hard work, but really rewarding.

“I think Pendine growing their own nurses is amazing, I admire it a lot.”

All the newly-qualified nurses have a graduation ceremony to look forward to, with the celebration taking place in October in Manchester.

The students were following in the footsteps of colleagues Amy Rowlands and Sioned Williams who were the first Pendine Park carers to go through the qualification, graduating successfully two years ago.

Several further members of staff are currently in the programme, as Pendine Park continues its work to produce nurses to join its 860-strong workforce.

The organisation, which has 440 beds within its nine homes, has just over 100 qualified nurses, not counting the latest cohort.
Celia Jones, Pendine Park’s clinical development officer, said: “I am very proud of all the new nurses, they have all worked so hard in their studies.

“I am a nurse and I know how hard it is to become one, so everyone should be very proud of their achievements.

The newly-qualified octet of nurses includes Sarah Hughes, Rebecca Armstrong, Chris Jones, Andrew Roberts, Kirsty Morris, Courteney Jones, Steph Lloyd and Michell Bevan.

Bryn Seiont Newydd manager Sandra Evans said: “It is brilliant to see our staff, who started as carers, develop their careers and become nurses.

“It shows there is a clear pathway for career development within the Pendine Park organisation.”

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