Our Heroes: No stopping the nurse who wants to keep on giving
THE sudden death of two close friends affected Joanne Grice-Barratt so much she quit her career as a pub manager and became a nurse.
The 38-year-old qualified beautician ran pubs around her Betley home until the double tragedy happened – with one close friend falling victim to cancer and another dying as a result of an accident soon after.
The loss left Joanne, below, feeling that she wanted to help people in similar situations, so she retrained as a nurse and now works at Leighton Hospital, Crewe.
During her training she spent time in Africa helping Aids victims and is now hoping to take her own children, Oscar, aged 10, and eight-year-old Charlotte to experience the country.
But Joanne also believes in charity beginning closer to home, and she puts that into practice as a member of life-saving group Madeley and District First Responders and as a Madeley Beavers' leader.
On top of the 20 hours a week she dedicates to volunteering, Joanne finds the time to take Charlotte for horse riding lessons, Oscar to play the euphonium with a band, both children to play cricket on Friday evenings and the Beavers to Kibblestone Camp for weekend activities.
And, living on her in-laws' farm she also mucks in with the animals.
Mum Christina Edwards, of Trentham, believes her daughter is an inspiration and nominated her for The Sentinel's Our Heroes awards in the Volunteer of the Year category.
She said: "If everyone was like Joanne the world would be a happier place.
"I'm really proud of her. She always wanted to do things for people. Her teachers at St John Fisher would say she's the first to help or get involved and she's carried that on.
"I wonder how she finds the time to do all these things.
"Sometimes I tell her to slow down but she just rolls her eyes at me.
"She is so motivated to help people, I don't know where she gets the energy.
"She could have gone to a state-of-the-art hospital in America for her training but typically she chose to go to Africa.
"She took the bare minimum for herself and filled her rucksack with toys for the orphanage."
Joanne said: "I run around like a headless chicken but I love doing it all. There's such a need for first responders and I've saved lives so it's very rewarding.
"With the Beavers just to see the kids growing and doing something worthwhile rather than getting in trouble is lovely.
"I do try to get others involved in volunteering because I think the more you give the more you get back."
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Comments
by Laura, Burslem
Tuesday, June 09 2009, 8:08AM
“An inspiration xxx”