Care worker is sacrificing to support others
Hero nurses and care staff recognised for their work
LOCKDOWN has made us all miss things from our normal lives – parties, weddings, even just going to the pub. But for one brave East End care worker, it meant missing her daughter’s fourth birthday.
Crystal Kerr, 28, from Baillieston sent her three children to her mother’s house to look after them while she went to work protecting the most vulnerable people in our society.
Catherine Russell nominated her friend for her selfless choice to isolate from her young family to look after their health and that of the elderly residents she cares for.
The two have worked together for around 10 years, said Catherine, who told how Crystal had to say happy birthday to her daughter through a window, with no physical contact.
Out of work, she said Crystal is “very bubbly, sociable and she likes her pink gin.
“Everyone gets on with her, she’s a total people person.”
Meanwhile, in the Scottish Borders, Aleena Mehan has had to endure isolation away from her friends and family, enjoying only limited contact with her colleagues with whom she works at a hospital there.
Her brother Vishal said: “She’s always helped people all her life.
“In three words: she’s kind, passionate and caring.”
The 24-year-old hospital pharmacist moved south from her home in Glasgow’s West End for career development opportunities and is now helping dispense vital medicines for patients, including those with mental health problems and elderly people in hospital.
Vishal said he knew his sister would be getting on with her work even after some of her co-workers in the Borders hospital worryingly developed Covid-19 at the beginning of the outbreak, helping to support patients in need of medication.
Meanwhile, Jacqueline Fail from Bishopbriggs, a radiographer at the Royal Infirmary, has been splitting her time between helping screen people for cancers and other illnesses and home-schooling her four children.
Her sister, Nicola, said that Jacqueline is a real-life “superwoman”, balancing raising her children with working 12 to 14 hour shifts at the hospital.
She added: “It’s incredible what she’s doing.
“She’s very strong-willed and doesn’t let people see her soft side. She doesn’t rely on anyone else.”
Nicola said she hadn’t seen her sister upset during the coronavirus crisis, despite the dual pressures of running a home and her responsibility to her patients.
“Growing up, she was always a very clever person and studying hard,” she went on.
“She loved going out, she’s the life and soul of a party, always having a laugh but she would always make her work the next day.”
Jacqueline gives her children everything, her sister said, and is a devoted mother on top of her high-priority work in the hospital.
“She’s a very kind and generous person and she never lets life get her down.”