Meet our People: NHS 111 Call Handler Sarah Wilson

And what a great time to shine a spotlight on Sarah Wilson, an NHS 111 Call Handler in our Peterborough contact centre who is also a carer for her husband. Sarah talks about her journey as a carer, the toll it took on her and how the NHS 111 Call Handler role at HUC has helped her re-find herself.

Two years ago, Sarah’s husband Brendan sadly suffered a stroke which caused 22 blood clots in his brain and an aneurysm in his leg that unfortunately made him disabled. He experienced severe difficulties with his mobility and speech. “My husband was a very fit and healthy man, but one day he woke up and had no voice, and I just knew he had had a stroke. As the day went on, his health got worse, and he spent a lot of time away from home in neuro-rehabilitation units, going through intensive physio and speech therapy,” Sarah explains.

But it was not just Brendan who was severely affected: Sarah’s own life completely changed and she became a full-time carer for him. “I had to leave my job at Thomas Cook which involved high-level escalation and team management. There was a time when I really struggled mentally as well, it was just such a shock. Our children were at university and it was an incredibly tough time, but I had to keep it together for them. However, I got to the stage where I simply needed to work again, if only at shorter hours than before. With my husband to care for, I could not work at the same level as I did before,” Sarah says.

Sarah began applying for jobs and the NHS 111 Call Handler role at HUC just felt right. “My husband nodded yes, and kept repeating ‘that job, that job’. So, he wanted me to do this job, and I don’t know why, but he just said it was the right job, and so I applied.”

Sarah joined HUC in September 2022 after completing her training with the support of her colleagues within the contact centre. “You have to complete several weeks of training before taking your first call and there is also some studying you have to do at home. The people at HUC invested and supported me to a high level because they knew how important this job was for me and my husband. Colleagues made a special effort to shadow my shifts because they knew I wanted to work here.”

“This role for me isn’t just a job, it is almost an escape. My husband is the most adorable man, but to live with someone who is difficult to have a conversation with is hard. I come to work and I can talk to people. Every phone call is a conversation, and it has helped me massively,” Sarah continues to explain.

Sarah talks about how her life has been transformed for the better since she started working as an NHS 111 Call Handler after she felt quite cooped up at home for most of her day. “HUC is very employee-focused. No matter who you are, or your background, everyone at HUC will try to accommodate you, and I feel that is the most important thing. They are also a very generous company, we get vouchers and shift enhancements. I did have to give up my Carer’s allowance because I kept tipping over with everything I got from HUC,” Sarah adds.

Now, she feels this role is a long-term job for her, even though at the start all she wanted was to get out of the house. “As a carer, you can lose yourself, and this job has given me my identity back. I don’t find it monotonous; every call is different and every person I speak to is a new interaction. So, Brendan was absolutely right when he said this was the right job for me.”

Thank you so much, Sarah, for sharing your thoughts and a very personal experience with us.