Clare is 45, a mother of four, a wife to one. Hopefully, a friend to many. And now at long last a nurse. Her journey began in 1995 when she attended Oxford Brookes University to study paediatric nursing. Ill health meant she had to leave. What followed was a full and very successful career. But something was always missing.
In 2016, with the announcement that nursing bursaries in England were about to cease, she made the decision to walk out of a well-paid career and begin to study mental health nursing. Clare attended Sheffield Hallam University, where among other things she was course and departmental representative. Clare also represented the university on a trip to China. And was the recipient of Sheffield Hallam University’s Inspirational Student of the Year. Clare is an active member of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). In 2019, she served as the student member of the Trade Union Committee and ex-officio member of the RCN Students’ Committee. She was also awarded the RCN Student Ambassador of the Year 2020.  She was delighted, surprised and honoured to be the winner of the Student Nursing Times MH Nurse of the Year 2020.
Now a Community Mental Health Nurse in Stockport Clare’s first year of Nursing has been no less busy.  Clare is a founder and co-host of the successful and award winning podcast – Retaining the Passion, Journeys Through Nursing, launched in June 2020.  Clare is part of RCN’s Newly Qualified Nurses project working group and a Twitter curator. She began engaging with Twitter after being inspired as one of the inaugural Council of Deans’ 150 Leaders cohort. Subsequently, Clare curated and led the Student Nurse Project for the majority of her nursing education. She has been actively involved with empowering women projects through her long association with Girl Guiding. Clare was shocked to discover her love for academia and graduated with a First-Class Honours degree. She is continuing to study and is taking a Masters in Perinatal Mental Health. Clare has ambitions to complete a PhD and to be a work in a specialist role with women and families.