Carer is following in her family's footsteps

Caring runs in the family for Rebecca Moore, who followed in her mother’s footsteps when she joined award winning Norfolk home care company Extra Hands two years ago.

“My mum started working with the company and really liked it,” she explained. “I was due to start another job but got let down due to Covid, so I started working at Extra Hands instead. We both really enjoy it.

---

“Half my family are carers and paramedics. I think it comes naturally – it’s in the blood!”

Her first experiences of caring also came via her family.  “I cared for my granddad, who had lung cancer and emphysema, and I looked after my great nan too,” said the 33-year-old.

“It’s something I’ve always loved doing, and I wouldn’t treat the people I care for now any differently to my grandad. We become part of the family – that’s what I love most about the job.”

“It’s a big thing to have someone in to look after you,” Miss Moore, of Catton,  continued. “You can’t take over their lives. You have to be respectful and allow them to maintain their independence and dignity, so it’s really rewarding when they accept you and let you in.”

The key, she added, is to allow people to be themselves.

“They’ve always been themselves, doing things the way they want to, and they can feel they lose that around carers. You have to make it easy for them to be themselves. They are all different and unique in their own ways.

“If they want a change, they can have it; if they don’t want to do anything different, they don’t have to. You have to let them be 100 per cent themselves.”

She remembers one service user who made a particularly profound impact on her: “There was one little lady who was 102, and she was so independent and strong. Both mum and I would see her, and when mum was there she would always ask after me and remember my name.

“Just before she died, she said to my mum: ‘Rebecca didn’t get a piece of my birthday cake.’ Being appreciated and remembered like that is what makes the job so worthwhile.”

A single mother of two, Miss Moore, who works from the Broadland office of the family-run company, has plans to take her caring career further, and is currently studying with a view to eventually becoming a district nurse.

“I absolutely love my job, and I want my children to see that I’m doing something good. Every day in care is different, because you’re working with different individuals. And every individual has been part of my caring career. I remember all of them – and they’ve all left a little something with me.”

Extra Hands, which also has offices in Heacham, was established in 1993 and offers a variety of home care visit packages across the county to suit all requirements.