Rachel Bray

Rachel Bray is a nurse in the Evesham Neighbourhood Team, providing care in the community

“I am so proud to be graduating.  It will be amazing to see all my cohort, and see how far we've all come, even since February when we finished our course,” said the mother-of-three, of Winchcombe, Gloucestershire.  “I am so proud to be a nurse, and still can't believe I've finally qualified. It is exciting and challenging, no two days are the same.”

The 41-year-old initially did a degree that led on to a career working with people with learning disabilities.  She stopped working in 2005 after having her first son, who was very unwell, and became his full-time carer and stayed at home for eight years.  She worked as a breastfeeding counsellor, a doula, supporting women with their pregnancy, and hypnotherapist.  However, Rachel had always wanted to be a nurse and in 2014 she decided to pursue this career.

She applied to Worcester as she had heard about its reputation in healthcare and started two weeks later. 

“It was really hard work, but I absolutely loved it,” she said. “It was such a brilliant course.  The tutors were really supportive; there were some tough times that I had to deal with, but they were brilliant.  To someone else thinking about a Nursing career, I would just say go for it, it’s never too late, and also take it a day at a time.”

She has now been accepted to do a Master’s in Evidence Based Healthcare at Oxford University alongside her work.