New Kid on the Block!
Hello Everyone
I’m Kim and I’m writing this as I finish my third week here at NRAS! I have joined the Volunteer Network team as Co-ordinator and I am excited about taking on this new challenge as my career takes a new path...
I worked at my previous company from the age of 17 for four years, starting as an apprentice, gaining a qualification and working my way up to being a fully fledged employee as the company Administrator and becoming the centre contact for everyone in the company.
Coming out of that job, I wanted to bring my admin skills to a new role, something more challenging and different. That is where I found the job advert for NRAS. The company name didn’t mean anything to me to begin with, but when I looked it up online and found out what the company did, it really pushed me to apply, as I felt it would be amazing to be part of company that does so much good.
Until about a year ago I, like a lot of people, had only really heard about and associated Arthritis with the older generation. My partner had started talking about having a lot of pain in his hands, particularly his right index finger, over a few months it got worse, it became very inflamed and he became barely able to bend it and lost a lot of grip in his hands. After I pushed him to see his doctor, and many appointments and tests later, he was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis. So I felt that coming here with my small amount of experience of living with someone with a type of inflammatory arthritis, would help me have some understanding and be able to help make a difference here.
In my three short weeks of working here, I feel that I have learnt so much about RA and how people feel. Mostly that it is so misunderstood by their peers and family; this has made me really evaluate how I have handled situations in the past with my partner and how sensitive I have been to how he was feeling. I think now I can be and continue to become much more aware of these things and just be more caring.
I really look forward to my career here at NRAS and I feel truly grateful that I am part of such a wonderful charity. I am going to start getting out and about at new NRAS Group launches and meetings and can’t wait to start meeting the people we help and hope to make a difference. So if any of you attend these and spot me, then please come and introduce yourself as I will love to meet you.
On a completely random note, here is a picture of my kitten that I can’t wait to get in 5
weeks!
Happy August bank holiday weekend to you all!
Kim
Volunteer Network Co-ordinator