22 June 2007

From cared-for to cating for graduate Caroline

Many students try to fit a gap year in before they begin University but for Dundee University graduate Caroline Beecroft the delayed start to her studies could not have been more unwelcome.

Caroline (42), who graduates today (Friday June 22nd) with a Nursing degree, had to defer her first year after she was diagnosed with breast cancer within only two weeks of beginning her course in October 2003.

"I had literally just begun when I found a lump and was diagnosed with breast cancer," said Caroline. "So I had to defer for a year while I underwent all the treatment. But I was determined to get back to studying and pursue nursing, and now I’ve got my degree."

For Caroline the inspiration to start a second career - she was formerly a project manager for a bank - came when she watched people with learning disabilities riding horses past her home in Muirhead, just outside Dundee.

"I had come to the realisation after a career break that I didn’t want to go back to my old job," she said. "Then I saw these people out riding horses and I thought I’d like to do that, get involved and help care for these people."

"I asked a friend how I would go about that and they told me to phone the University. I did, and within three weeks I was enrolled for the Nursing degree with a place on the Learning Disability programme."

"I was a bit nervous about the science side of it, because I’d never been very good at that kind of thing when I’d been at school, but I stuck at it. It also helped that after my year out and all the treatment I’d undergone I was suddenly a lot more interested in how all that stuff worked!"

"My `gap year’ wasn’t the best but it certainly gave me an insight into how we treat people and care for them, and I am happy now to be a part of that."

Caroline is now a staff nurse working in NHS Tayside helping people with learning disabilities.

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Roddy Isles
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University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
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E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk