Story by Makenzie (Support Worker )

Since I was around 7 years of age I knew that I wanted to help/support people and having a learning difficulties myself (Irelen Sydrome) it just pushed me more. So as I got older I looked more into the avenues I could go down to achieve this. As my school life continued I felt like I wasn’t getting the support I needed , so I decided I wanted to become a teacher assistant for children who have learning difficulties/disabilities.
So when it came to year 9 when I was able to choose my options I chose to do Health and Social care as a class. I did it for 3 months but I had to change lessons as I got bullied for doing a girly subject and was called gay for doing it. So from then to when I had to apply for my college course I just kept quiet about my ambitions, until near the end of year 11 (2013) I decided to apply for a level 2 childcare course . I got accepted but I didn’t get the GCSEs for level 2 so I was dropped down to Level 1 which was induction to childcare and health and social care.
To be honest I was incredibly disheartened by this but lucky for me I found an amazing group of friends who helped me see that this is not a setback but actually an advantage because that year my confidence went though the roof (professionally and personally). I went from strength to strength. My tutor at college was a massive help and saw something in me that others and myself couldn’t see. During this year I did work experience at a special needs school. Here I worked with challenging behaviour and this was my first look into supporting people with learning difficulties/disabilities. It was an amazing experience but that year had ended and I was looking forward to going to my next year of college which was going to be a teaching assistant course.
The summer went and it was the start of the college year and I was really looking forward to getting started as I thought this was what I wanted to do. Turns out this year showed me that this wasn’t what I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to support people with Learning Disabilities but not in a school environment. So when I left I had no clue what I wanted to do. During my 2 years at college I had 2 part time jobs and hated them both.
Two years passed and about 3 jobs down I found myself working in insurance which was probably one of the lowest points in my life. Being 19 wanting to help people and working in a 9-5 office job instead was hard, until 6 months later when I was looking for a different job a family member of mine told me to apply to be a support worker for vulnerable adults . I had never actually thought about that avenue so I was worried but I took it and started at a care company.
Now when I started I still wasn’t sure if it was for me but as the time went on I had found out that this was the job I was born to do. Unfortunately this company apparently didn’t see anything in me and 4 months later I was let go for being too young and inexperienced. This honestly smashed my confidence and I generally just wanted to give up on care. Anyway, 2 jobs and a year later I spoke to two employees of Hilton Care who saw potential in me and helped me get a bank position with Hilton.
In this year period of being bank I had the opportunity to work at 5 amazing houses around the King’s Lynn area and was working with some truly awesome support workers and brilliant Team Leaders. But the best things were supporting each and every Tenant and being able to have the opportunity to support that many amazing Tenants, and trust me they are! And to have the experience I did was HONESTLY the best thing ever!
It got better because on 1st July 2018 I was offered a full time job at Service X. In the short 2 months I was there I learnt bucket loads and enjoyed literally every moment. Then in November 2018 I was moved to Service Y where I am currently. It is here where I think that I have found my feet and am pushing to go as far as I can in this company. In this service I have had some amazing opportunities, like supporting my Tenants with my Team Leader to Disneyland Paris and later this year going to London to support a Tenant to watch Impractical Jokers live.
It isn’t all good and amazing experiences, it is also a hard job at points and for an average person it might not seem worth it but for me this is why I love this job because it’s rewarding and I go home with a smile on my face every time I finish. This is more than a career to me, it’s also my hobby. I love this job!
I can’t express how thankful I am to Hilton Care because they helped find my potential and are helping me grow into an amazing support worker and hopefully a Team Leader one day. Hilton Care have been amazing and I can tell you now you won’t find a better company because they have helped me with everything, even my personal confidence!