Alice, 18, gets over A-level studies being cancelled by caring for dying patients
A TEENAGER whose lessons and A-levels were cancelled has been working as a carer looking after patients dying at home. And she reckons all teens should do it too as a new form of national service.
Alice O’Brien, 18, who has to wear a hazmat suit said just two weeks into the £8.72-an-hour job has changed her life.
She said: “I really lived a sheltered life for sure. My mum was not too keen as it was so out of my comfort zone, but neither of us could have anticipated just how difficult it would be.
“On my first shift I sat in my car and sobbed.The first day of work is hard anyway – but I didn’t expect the emotional or physical side of it.
“I was two days into the job and had to comfort a man whose wife was about to die.
“It is a privilege to be with someone in that moment, but it is difficult.”
Alice, of St Albans, Herts, who is going to Cambridge University to study human, social and political sciences on grades based on work already done, had been planning a summer of inter-rail travel and a girls’ holiday to Corfu.
She said of her hazmat suit garb: “It is like a dystopian film.”
Alice added: “It is a twisted job because what is a good day for me does not necessary mean that good things have happened.
“I hate this job with every fibre of my being, but I love it at the same time. It is a horrible job but really rewarding.”
Explaining why all teens should do it, she said: “It teaches so many practical skills but it’s incredibly emotionally challenging work.”